In Memoriam: Koko Taylor and Laddie Hutcherson
by
Andria Lisle
on
June 4, 2009 at 5:34PM
While the bizarre circumstances surrounding David Carradine's death trump all other celebrity deaths this week, us Memphians have our own mourning to do:
Yesterday, 80-year old blues great Koko Taylor died in Chicago, less than a month after she appeared at the Blues Music Awards here in Memphis to collect her 29th BMA and perform her signature, million-selling hit single, "Wang Dang Doodle." Born the daughter of a Shelby County sharecropper, Cora "Koko" Walton departed Memphis for Chicago in 1952 with her future husband, Robert "Pops" Taylor, in tow, and never looked back.