MISSISSIPPI - B.B. King's early life personified the blues: He was born to dirt-poor sharecroppers in the cotton country of the Mississippi Delta and left alone by the deaths of his mother and grandmother when he was a child. But he never let those circumstances hold him back or define him, a minister said Sunday at the funeral of the blues legend. "Hands that once picked cotton would someday pick guitar strings on a national and international stage. Amazing," the Rev. Herron Wilson said in a standing-room-only sanctuary at Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church in King's hometown of Indianola, Mississippi.
King, whose distinctive guitar style influenced generations of entertainers, was 89 when he died May 14 in Las Vegas. At his request, his body was returned to his native Mississippi for a final homecoming.
"He will forever be the king of the blues," Stevie Wonder said in a spoken tribute that was played at the funeral, although he did not attend.
About 500 people filled the sanctuary of the church, a red brick structure that sits in a field off of B.B. King Road in Indianola.
More than 200 people who couldn't get into the sanctuary watched a live broadcast of the funeral in the church's fellowship hall, many waving hand-held fans with a black-and-white photo of a smiling King hugging his black electric guitar, Lucille. - AP
