Blind Willie Johnson

Britannica says Johnson was blinded at seven when his stepmother threw lye in his face during a fight with his father. He recorded thirty songs between 1927 and 1930, singing gospel with his own guitar, and Britannica describes a rough, low baritone and slide guitar on "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down." After his house burned down, he slept in the ruins, contracted malaria, and died in Beaumont on September 18, 1945, at 48.

What the plaque says

Blind Willie Johnson Willie Johnson was born near Independence, Texas, in 1897 to Willie and Mary (Fields) Johnson. His family moved to Marlin when Johnson was a young boy, and it was there that he first learned gospel songs at church; his first guitar was said to be made from a cigar box. Johnson lost his sight as a child, possibly as the result of an accident at home. Johnson grew up in and around Marlin singing on the streets there and in nearby Hearne. He later moved to Dallas and continued as a sidewalk performer. Between 1927 and 1930, Johnson recorded a total of 30 songs in four recording sessions in Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta for Columbia Records' "Race" series (for African American artists), and sold about 5,000 records each year from 1929 to 1934. Johnson and his family settled in Beaumont, purchased a home there, and lived in the town for the rest of his life. After his recording career ended, Johnson earned a meager living as a street musician and preacher; he operated the house of prayer in his home at 1440 Forrest Street. After Johnson's death in 1945, his recordings brought him great commercial popularity, and his music has been rereleased several times and covered by many notable musicians. His gospel recordings display his moving but raspy singing voice and mastery of the slide guitar. In 1977, Johnson's recording of "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground" was chosen for inclusion on the golden record compiled to showcase the diversity of earth's cultures and sent out of our solar system on the Voyager 1 Spacecraft. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• McFaddin-Ward House — 0.8 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 4.6 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Village Creek State Park — 11 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 19 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• Magnolia Cemetery — 0.6 mi
• Aubrey Wilson "Moon" Mullican — 0.6 mi
• William McFaddin — 0.6 mi
• Andrew F. Smyth — 0.6 mi