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He died in Chicago on December 19, 1929, and nobody could agree on how. The Blind Lemon Jefferson grave in Wortham, Texas is where that mystery settled. Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Father of Texas Blues, was thirty-six years old. His death certificate listed “probably acute myocarditis.” But rumors circulated for decades — a snowstorm, a robbery near Chicago Union Station, a jealous lover’s poison. Whatever happened that night, the blues lost its first great solo voice.
Paramount Records paid to bring the body home. The pianist William Ezell accompanied Jefferson’s remains on the train back to Texas. Jefferson’s family buried him at Wortham Negro Cemetery — the same Freestone County ground where he had grown up. For years, his grave had no marker. Even the precise location of the plot remained uncertain.
One Kind Favor
A Texas historical marker appeared near Jefferson’s plot in 1967 — thirty-eight years after his death. Blues fans had raised the money to acknowledge him. Then in 1997, the Blues Legends organization placed a granite headstone over his grave. The inscription came from Jefferson’s own lyrics: “Lord, it’s one kind favor I’ll ask of you — see that my grave is kept clean.” In 2007, the cemetery officially took his name: Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery.
“See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” became one of the most-covered songs in American music. Bob Dylan covered it on his debut album in 1962. B.B. King recorded a whole album around it in 2008. The Grateful Dead played it live. So did Peter, Paul and Mary. Jefferson had written his own epitaph — he just didn’t know it at the time.
The cemetery sits just north of Wortham, off Highway 14. A local committee still maintains Jefferson’s grave — they took the song’s request seriously. The Blind Lemon Jefferson birthplace lies just a few miles away. It’s the same Freestone County farmland where he grew up. And when you visit both on the same afternoon, you understand why Texas blues didn’t come from Nashville or New York. It came from here.