Selected
Article:
B.B.
King Museum coming to Indianola
Will
become a Mecca for blues lovers
BY LYNN LA FOE
DBJ Contributing Writer
Plans
for the first official B.B. King Museum are rapidly taking
shape in Indianola where the reigning King of the Blues
strummed his first chords as a young blues guitarist.
According the Allen Hammons of Hammons and Associates in
Greenwood, interim executive director for the B.B. King
Foundation, this museum will be unique because it has the
backing of King himself.
“This will be the official B.B. King Museum—the
only one on the planet,” Hammons says .
The B.B. King Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 organization established
to spearhead the effort to make the museum a reality. Thanks
to a bill recently passed by the legislature and signed
by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a two percent sales tax on prepared
food and beverages and lodging in Indianola will provide
funding for the museum, Hammons says.
“The city of Indianola is now drawing up an ordinance
to create the Indianola Convention and Visitors Bureau which
will operate the museum using the funds generated by the
new tax,” says Hammons.
Members of the board of directors of the foundation are
primarily Indianola citizens, along with King and his long-time
manager Floyd Lieberman. Indianola lawyer and Sunflower
County Board of Supervisors member Carver Randle has also
been involved with the project since its inception.
“I’ve been working with the board to help bring
this thing off. We’re looking at having the museum
up and running by April, 2005,” Randle says.
The museum will only have positive results for the area,
he adds.
“This will provide a tremendous facelift for Indianola
and the entire area–a facelift for the economy and
a facelift for the social scene,” Randle says.
Randle also sees the King Museum as a drawing card for tourists.
“We hope it will make Indianola and the Delta a Mecca
for people–especially blues lovers.”
Indianola businessman Bill McPherson, who joined the B.B.
King Foundation board last October, says he is excited about
the project. The co-chair of Double Quick convenience stores
throughout southwest Mississippi and southeast Arkansas,
McPherson says he hopes this will be the start of something
big for the future of Indianola and the whole Delta.
“We hope this will become an anchor destination for
tourists and lead to the establishment of a Blues Trail
throughout the entire Delta area,” McPherson says.
“There are blues efforts going on all over the Delta–up
in Cleveland at Delta State and in Clarksdale–and
we’re hoping we can all get together and create something
substantial to draw tourism to the area.”
The facility to house the museum is still in the planning
stages. “Several sites are currently under evaluation,
but we can’t be more specific right now,” Hammons
says.
Steven Perkins of the ForrestPerkins architectural firm
in Washington, D.C., and Dallas, Texas, has been retained
by the foundation to facilitate the design. Perkins’
firm is also responsible for the renovation of the Irving
Hotel in downtown Greenwood which recently reopened as the
opulent Alluvian Hotel.
According to Randle, some of the older historic buildings
in Indianola, similar to the one where his office is located,
are being looked at for the museum. Randle’s law firm
occupies a 1940s-era structure on the corner of Church and
Second streets.
“This building was a bakery for many years and the
black man who baked the bread at night would plug up an
extension cord for B.B. so he could play his guitar on the
street corner,” says Randle. King’s hand and
footprints are preserved in the sidewalk there and a facsimile
of his guitar Lucille is painted nearby.
In preparation for the museum project, teams of architectural
students from Auburn University and Mississippi State University
have spent time in Indianola over the past year, helping
define the perfect site for the museum and studying the
town as a whole.
As the B.B. King Museum project moves forward, more people
from around the country will become involved as members
of a national advisory board, which is currently being assembled.
“We’re expecting, this to be an $8 to $10 million
project of a level we’re not accustomed to seeing
in this area,” Hammons says. “It will be a world-class
facility and we’re using some of the best people in
the country to put it together.” DBJ
