Otis Rush

Otis Rush grew up in a sharecropping family near Philadelphia and refused the cotton fields. At fourteen he moved to Chicago, working stockyards, steel mills and a horse-drawn coal wagon while he haunted blues clubs at night. Inspired by watching Muddy Waters, he played as Little Otis until Willie Dixon caught his act and signed him to Cobra Records. His slow-burning guitar and long bent notes became a hallmark of the West Side sound, shared with Magic Sam and Buddy Guy. His marker was refurbished and moved beside the Welcome Center in 2020.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Neshoba County Jail — 0.4 mi
  The 1955 jail in downtown Philadelphia where James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were held on June 21, 1964, hours before they were murdered.
• Chahta Immi Cultural Center — 4.3 mi
  The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians' own museum and cultural center at Pearl River, with basketry, artifacts and the tribe's guidance on what visitors may see.
• Mount Zion Methodist Church — 7.3 mi
  The Black church in Longdale burned by the Klan on June 16, 1964, rebuilt by its congregation, and the place Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner had gone to visit when they were murdered.
• Nanih Waiya — 14 mi
  The Mother Mound of the Choctaw in Winston County, a sacred origin place returned to the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians in 2008.

More markers nearby

• Marty Stuart — 0.4 mi
• Marty Gamblin — 0.4 mi
• Adam Monroe Byrd — 0.6 mi
• Bob Ferguson — 6.2 mi