I am now officially kicking myself for not attending the funeral for Ernest C Withers, I assumed it would be impossible to find parking given his prominence. I ran into a work colleague at the procession who informed they had set aside extra parking and while it was well attended I could have squeezed in.
I thought I would offer up a few pictures of the procession down Beale Street, it was low key and not quite as robust as a New Orleans send off. Still worth attending.
There is always something going on down on Beale Street. I have mixed feelings about it because tourists come to see history and it has become pretty commodified. Including locals, it has about 4.2 million visitors annually and generates about 30 million dollars in annual revenue.
When I first moved to Memphis, I was wondering around downtown on a quiet Sunday and went into the old location of the Center for Southern Folklore and met
Joyce Cobb a now local singer, with an enormous range of talent. She was very kind and friendly to a complete stranger and while at times I am not sure if the whole southern charm thing is genuine, it made a great impression on me. She has a regular thing at Bosco's for the Sunday brunch crowd and if you come to town go check her out.
There are always street musicians at any time of the night and day on Beale Street and it stuns me just how much talent is in this city even though the "prime time" of Memphis R&B and soul has supposedly passed, there are still great "under the radar" musicians playing who just don't get national recognition. Dianne Price comes to my mind as an under recognized talent, but there are many.
I stopped by W C Handy park and saw these guys playing, they were playing some party blues in a laid back atmosphere.
Not much starts on time in Memphis, people hung out and it was the perfect opportunity to chat with complete strangers, the one thing you can always be assured of being able to do in Memphis. I lusted after another man's higher quality Nikon, who turned out to be a casual photo enthusiast like myself and I might been flirted at by another guy from out of town here on business who read about the procession in the paper. I have been married way to long to be able to read subtle signals. So, we all just hung out...
I am now at the age where cops look way too young to be cops...
Some of gentlemen who would lead the procession...
The procession is in session...
Folks watch and appreciate. One of the gentlemen in the cars going to the cemetery jumped out to help direct traffic...
Hey a photographer... I think he was a pro...
This sums it up for me...
Thanks for looking. Here is a nice sampling of Ernest C Wither's outstanding images.