November 16, 1873

Musician and songwriter W.C. Handy was born in Florence. Known as the “Father of the Blues,” Handy successfully transitioned blues from a regional musical style to the national pop culture scene. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and is honored in Florence each summer with the weeklong W.C. Handy Music Festival.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

As a young man, W.C. Handy played cornet in brass bands in Evansville, Illinois, and Henderson, Kentucky, from 1893-96 and toured internationally with Mahara’s Minstrels during the late 1890s. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

W.C. Handy House in Florence, 2016. (Erin Harney/AlabamaNewsCenter)

In his only leading film role, jazz artist Nat “King” Cole portrayed “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy in the 1958 film “St. Louis Blues,” with costars and fellow musicians Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson and Eartha Kitt. This is an image of one of the movie’s original posters. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

William Christopher Handy (1876-1958), known as “The Father of the Blues,” was a composer and performer of the blues who hailed from Florence, Lauderdale County. Handy played a large role in popularizing the blues in America during the early 20th century. (Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

Portrait of William Christopher Handy, 1941. (Carl Van Vechten Photographs, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.