She now rests in silence. The familiar sounds are deafeningly quiet. She sang soulful notes coaxed by the skilled fingers of her master. She brought forth the butterfly vibrato perfectly executed. The combined use of the slide and bending the note created music that touched the soul within everyone who heard it. The ode to joy now replaced with a funeral dirge. The show is at an end. Lucille now resting as does her masterful player, B.B. King.
King, born to sharecropper parents in Indianola, Mississippi, passed away at the age of 89. His hometown is now also his final resting place. The usually quiet, nondescript town of Indianola, located on the Mississippi Delta was bursting at the seams over the weekend, with media and tourists alike. The quaint little town turned into a bustling media hub with news outlets from as far away as London came and packed the streets and parking lots to cover the funeral of the great blues man, B.B. King. Tourists from far and near gawked over fences, and peered through windows like curious meerkats in the hopes of spotting a celebrity that may have ventured into the town to pay their respects to the King of the Blues himself.
An estimated 600 people packed the Bell Grove Baptist Church, with hundreds more gathered outside. The only media allowed inside the church, was PBS, who broadcast the funeral live, and a pool photographer. Everyone else was left to their own imagination and the gossip of others as to who and what was going on inside. All came to pay their respects to arguably one of the greatest blues guitarists who ever lived. B.B. King influenced many of the great musicians who play now.
The museum in downtown Indianola, that bears the name of B.B. King, saw scores of folks come in and out during the live broadcast of the funeral. The burial was between the museum and the town police station as requested by King himself. Not outdone by all the media in town, a few locals embraced the entrepreneurial spirit and set up stands to sell t-shirts, as well as open up there yards for parking at $5.00 per car! As the procession left the church and headed towards the museum, Mississippi State Troopers donned their best uniforms to lead the group down main, as three horses followed behind. Two white and one black horse lead the way for the hearse. The black horse adorned with a saddle that had two of King's guitars attached. The blues man's beloved guitar, Lucille, was taking one last ride to the fanfare of the hundreds of onlookers lining the street for one last look.
As B.B. King laid to rest, surrounded by family and friends, and Lucille put away, the crowds slowly dispersed to head their own directions, as a B.B. King Song was playing over a loud speaker. The King of the blues played for the last time here on this planet, but the music he played lives on. He will be missed.