Papa Lightfoot

Papa Lightfoot's best-known records came late, after most listeners had stopped paying attention. Born in Natchez in 1924, the harmonica player cut sessions for Peacock, Sultan, Aladdin, Imperial, Savoy and Excello between 1949 and 1956, then quit recording as an obscure Southern bluesman. In 1969, as the blues revival turned toward rural players, producer Steve LaVere came to Natchez and asked him to record again. The result was the album Natchez Trace, followed that year by a second record for Liberty. Lightfoot died in Natchez in November 1971.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Forks of the Road — 0.3 mi
  The 1832-1863 slave market a mile east of downtown Natchez, the second busiest in the Deep South, now a Natchez National Historical Park site with exhibit panels.
• Melrose Estate — 0.8 mi
  A Greek Revival estate in Natchez, now a National Park Service site, interpreted through the people who were enslaved there as well as the McMurran family.
• Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture — 1.0 mi
  A museum in the old 1904 post office on Main Street, opened in 1991, covering slavery, Reconstruction and the Natchez civil rights movement.
• William Johnson House — 1.0 mi
  The brick home and shop block of a free Black barber and diarist in Natchez, who enslaved others himself and was shot by a neighbor in 1851.

More markers nearby

• Holy Family Catholic Church — 0.5 mi
• Richard Wright — 0.7 mi
• Trinity Episcopal Church — 0.9 mi
• Andrew Marschalk — 1.0 mi