Johnson’s Death Certificate – The Back

For those of you who frequent this site, you know I have been looking for an image of the back of Robert Johnson’s Deatch Certificate,.  Well, I finally go a copy.  Here it is….

Click for a full size image

The back of the certificate clears a few things up.

For one, at the time of Johnson’s death, a 1925 Mississippi law was in effect that required a Mississippi Health Officer to conduct an investigation into any death unattended by medical aid.  THis means an investigation into RJ’s death must have occurred.  And we now know it did.

With this document, it is now confirmed that LeFlore County Registrar Cornelia Jordan conducted the investigation for the state director of Vital Statistics, R.N Whitfield.

The investigation, as printed above, reads as follows:

I talked with the white man on whose place this negro died and I also talked with a negro woman on the place.  The plantation owner said the negro man, seemingly about 26 years old, came from Tunica two or three weeks before he died to play banjo at a negro dance given there on the plantation.  He staid[sic] in the house with some of the negroes saying he wanted to pick cotton.  The white man did not have a doctor for this negro as he had not worked for him.  He was buried in a homemade coffin furnished by the county.  The plantation owner said it was his opinion that the negro died of syphilis.

Of course, this can be taken several ways.  But before we get all excited, lets think about this.   For one, the plantation owner is not a doctor, so his opinion as to the cause of death matters little.  In fact, it’s most likely the case that he would say what he had to to take the heat off him and his workers.  Secondly, how many blues singers and rambling musicians died of syphilis with a bullet hole in the back of their head?

Also, for RJ to have actually died of syphilis, he would have had to have had congenital syphilis – meaning he had it since birth.  Then and only then could it cause him to die at age 26, if he drank enough moonshine to compound this medical problem.   Another option, as we all have heard, is that liver damage, moonshine, and poison could have caused pneumonia that killed him.  One thing is for sure, the poison couldn’t do it alone.  To be poisoned and die four days later only means the poison didn’t kill you.

We also learn from the certificate that a Carrie Harris obtained a copy of the death certificate.  She could have possibly been a Johnson relative, like his half sister as some believe,  and it appears she was from Memphis, Tennessee.

Even though more light has shed, it is almost certain that Johnson’s death will forever remain a mystery….

12/9 – Two Masters Reviewed

For those of you who missed it, wow.

Often times, when you go to see a blues show, especially with an old timer like T-Model, you never know what you are going to get.  Well, for those of us who went to Ace’s Lounge on that faithful Tuesday, we got it all.

Slated to appear with Ben Prestage as a special Guest, T-Model took the stage – defiantly and against the owners wishes – well over an hour ahead of schedule.   He jammed with his band, turning a sound check into the show’s intro with just a few trusty delta blues notes.

As Ben attempted to take the stage for his “special guest” set, T- Model again walked up to the stage.  This time, he took Ben’s guitar away from him, sat down in a chair on the stage, and counted off yet another number.

Ben And T-Model ended up playing 6 or 7 songs together, most of them focusing around T-Model’s lyrics about “chicken heads.”  Ben, normally a one-man-show, played drums with his feet, the harmonica, and did shots of whiskey and smoked cigs while 88 year old T-Model jammed out.

In the end, a loud mouthed, half drunk T-Model let Ben do his set.  After Ben was finished (and he was amazing, as usual), T-Model again took the stage, and he was as amazing as you would expect a delta legend to be.  Just before his set, I had time to catch up with the delta legend.  Here was our conversation:

Me: T-Model, good to see you.  Sorry we missed you when we came to Greenville.
T-Model: Why’d ya miss me?
Me: Well, we heard about your pace-maker surgery.  We wanted to let you recover.
T-Model: I don’t listen to them damn fools.  You know I never laid down, even when they said.  You see me here drinking don’t you?
Me: I see.  And you’re the boss.  So, how’s your band [Gravelroad]?
T-Model: They’ll do. Can’t keep no time no way.
Me: Next time we’re in the Delta, I’ll look you up.
T-Model: Do it, and we’ll get together and play some blues.

Another amazing show.  And it was like having a slice of the Mississippi Delta right here in Florida….