Beaumont: Blind Willie Johnson Gravesite

One of his recordings is traveling past the edge of the solar system right now. Yet for decades, nobody could find his grave. The Blind Willie Johnson gravesite lies somewhere inside Blanchette Cemetery in Beaumont. Researchers rediscovered the forgotten burial ground in 2009. Then, in 2010, they raised a monument in his honor.

Johnson came into the world in Central Texas in 1897. As a small boy, he lost his sight. His stepmother reportedly threw lye in his face during a family fight. So he turned to the guitar and the gospel. He preached and sang on the streets of Marlin, Temple, and Waco.

Dark Was the Night

Columbia Records recorded him in Dallas starting in 1927. He played slide with a pocketknife or a brass ring, and his voice growled like a freight train. Then came “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” a wordless moan over moaning slide guitar. It sounds like grief itself, hummed in the dark.

In 1977, NASA chose that recording for the Voyager Golden Record. Now it drifts through interstellar space as a message from Earth. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin all recorded his songs.

The Great Depression ended his recording career. Afterward, Johnson settled in Beaumont and ran a House of Prayer at 1440 Forrest Street. He kept singing on downtown street corners. In September 1945, he fell ill with pneumonia. His wife Angeline later said a hospital turned him away because he was blind.

The Lost Cemetery

His death certificate named Blanchette Cemetery. But nobody remembered where Blanchette Cemetery was. So two Austin blues fans dug through county deed records for months. In 2009, they pinned it down between Hegele and Ollie streets. Still, his exact plot remains unknown.

That makes this grave a lot like his music. You feel its presence more than you see it. Southeast Texas carried his influence forward through players like Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown in nearby Orange. Read more about Blind Willie Johnson and his Columbia sides.

Stand by the monument on a still evening. Then look up. His voice is out there, still moving.

Photo: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons