Richard Berry, Jr.

Berry wrote Louie Louie in 1955 and released it in 1957 with the Pharaohs, selling about 130,000 copies regionally. He sold the copyright for $750 to pay for his wedding, in 1959 by one account and 1957 by another. The Kingsmen's raucous 1963 recording made it a national hit, drew radio bans and an FBI investigation over lyrics many listeners misheard as obscene. In the mid-1980s a California Cooler commercial led lawyers to Berry, and a settlement with the publishers made him a millionaire.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Frogmore Cotton Plantation and Gins — 25 mi
  A working cotton farm near Ferriday that tells the plantation story through the people enslaved there, with quarters, an ancient mound and a rare steam-engine gin.

More markers nearby

• Al "Puddler" Harris — 6.5 mi
• Boeuf Prairie Methodist Church — 7.6 mi
• Gene King — 8.8 mi
• Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault — 11 mi