About this site
Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery is a cemetery in Freestone County, Texas. It is one of 86 cemeteries documented in Freestone County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 145 historic sites cataloged across the county.
The site sits at 31.7975, -96.4630. The nearest cataloged historic site is Wortham Cemetery (cemetery), about 0.1 miles away. Others within a short drive include Jefferson, Blind Lemon, Allegre, Judge, and Bounds, Rev. G. W..
This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #7161005605. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
History
This cemetery in Wortham, long known as the Wortham 'Negro' (Black) Cemetery, was renamed Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery in 2007 in honor of the pioneering Texas blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson, who is buried there. Born blind near Wortham about 1893, Jefferson became a hugely influential recording artist before dying in Chicago in 1929; Paramount Records returned his body to Freestone County, where he was buried in an unmarked grave. A Texas historical marker was placed near the grave in 1967, and in 1997 the Blues Legends organization funded a granite headstone inscribed with a line from his song: 'Lord, it's one kind favor I'll ask of you, see that my grave is kept clean.'
Sources: tshaonline.orgtxgenwebcounties.orgaustinchronicle.com
