Sunday, August 30, 2009

Bessie

About sixteen miles out of Friars Point, heading toward Highway 61, I came to a stop sign. The road sign above it read Old Highway 61. Across the road was a sign for the "Corp. Limit" of Coahoma, MS. It dawned on me where I was. I made a right turn and pulled the Buick over to the shoulder about a mile and a half down where the road takes a sharp bend to the right, then to the left and straightens as it heads south toward Clarksdale. There was no sign marking the spot, but I knew exactly where I was - it was the spot where Bessie Smith's car went off the road. She was heading for Clarksdale. She finally made it - and died in the Colored Hospital (now a rooming house). The story about how she died because the White Folks hospital wouldn't take her is completely untrue. The first vehicle on the scene was the Colored ambulance and she was so far gone at that point that nothing could have saved her.

I retraced and then continued west, turning on Highway 61, north to Memphis.

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