#HISTORYLANE: PIONEER BLACK AMERICAN SINGER BESSIE SMITH DIES IN 1937!

September 26, 1937, saw the demise of foremost and pioneer black American singer, Bessie Smith, being one of the firsts to take blues music to greater heights and one of the few black music divas of her time; she died in a car accident in Memphis, Tennessee while traveling on the popular Route 61. Popular for her 1923 song DOWNHEARTED BLUES which was in 2006 inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.