The collision of Mississippi’s rural past with the early stages of industrial development was embodied in the life and work of Meridian’s favorite son, Jimmie Rodgers, whose original mixing of black Delta blues and white Appalachian folk songs earned him the title “Father of Country Music.” What Elvis Presley was to the 1950s, Rodgers was to the previous generation. Born in Meridian on September 8, 1897, Rodgers worked briefly on the railroad, lost his job after coming down with tuberculosis, then became the original overnight success. After he was discovered by an RCA talent scout in 1927, Rodgers’ first record, “Sleep, Baby, Sleep,” sold over a million copies. For the next five years he called himself the “Singing Brakeman” and was the world’s best-selling recording artist. Rodgers’s life and legend are honored in the small Jimmie Rodgers Museum (Mon.–Sat. 10 am–4 pm, Sun. 1–5 pm; $5; 601/485-1808) at 41st Avenue and 19th Street in Highland Park, well-signed two miles northwest of downtown. It contains all manner of odd Rodgers-related memorabilia, plus his boots and his custom Martin guitar. Jimmie Rodgers died of tuberculosis in May 1933 and is buried alongside his wife in Oak Grove Cemetery, two miles south of Meridian. In 1997, an excellent tribute album of Jimmie Rodgers’ songs was recorded by the likes of Bono, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, and Willie Nelson, all of whom rated Rodgers as a major influence on their music.
