Photos: B.B.King laid to rest in hometown + tribute from president Obama

 

Family members of the late B.B. King have come together at his funeral service held on Saturday at Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Indianola, Mississippi, a town he considered his home. 

The musician, who influenced generations of singers and guitarists, died aged 89 on May 14 at his residence in Las Vegas. 

At the final ceremony, relatives, friends and Mississippi's governor Phil Bryant were among the guests who mourned the King Of The Blues ahead of his final resting place at the B.B. King Museum in his beloved Indianola. 

A children's choir based at the B.B. King Museum clapped as they sang gospel songs, while President Barack Obama sent a letter to be read aloud by Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, a friend of King.

'The blues has lost its king and America has lost a legend,' Obama said. 'No one worked harder than B.B. No one did more to spread the gospel of the blues. He gets stuck in your head, he gets you moving, he gets you doing the things you probably shouldn't do — but will always be glad you did.

'B.B. may be gone but that thrill will be with us forever. And there's going to be one killer blues session in heaven tonight.'

The entertainer is survived by 11 children, from different partners, and around 40 grandchildren, according to his eldest daughter Shirley King, 65, also a musician.

King has said that he has fathered '15 children by 15 women.' 

Twice married, none of his wives produced children during the relationships. Three of his children did not survive him. 

King wrote in his memoir Blues All Around Me: 'If a woman I've been with says the child is mine, I don’t argue. I assume responsibility.

 
 

 

 


 

 

 

Influential: Mississippi governor Phil Bryant attended the funeral for the musician who inspired many guitarists from Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan