Mabel Louise "Big Maybelle" Smith

The name came from a record producer, not a mother. Mabel Smith began singing professionally in 1936 with Dave Clark's Memphis band, toured with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, and made her first recordings in 1944 with Christine Chatman's orchestra. Okeh signed her in 1952, and producer Fred Mendelsohn gave her the stage name for a voice that was loud yet well toned. In 1955 she recorded Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On with Quincy Jones producing, two years before Jerry Lee Lewis, who credited her version for his louder, rawer one.

What the plaque says

Mabel Louise "Big Maybelle" Smith Born circa 1924 in Jackson, Tennessee, "Big Maybelle" became a powerful Rhythm & Blues Singer. With her emotive delivery, and as one of the premier R&B chanteuses of the 1950s, she served as an essential link between raucous 1950s R&B and the soul sounds that emerged in the next decade. Her recordings include Candy, which received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, and the original version of Whole Lot of Shakin Going On. Her career led her to sing at the famous Apollo Theatre in New York City. She died January 23, 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio, and later buried there in Evergreen Cemetery. In 2011 Smith was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 11 mi
  The largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States, about two thousand years old, with the second tallest mound in the country, a museum and paved trails.
• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 25 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.

More markers nearby

• Mother Liberty CME Church — steps away
• Monroe Dunaway Anderson / Anderson, Clayton & Company — 0.4 mi
• 61st US Colored Infantry Regiment — 0.4 mi
• Lambuth College — 1.1 mi