Jimmie Rodgers Birthplace — Meridian, Mississippi

Jimmie Rodgers — the 'Father of Country Music' — was born on September 8, 1897, in Meridian, Mississippi, and the city has commemorated him with a museum, an annual festival, and a dedicated monument. Rodgers fused country, blues, and jazz into a style that defined American vernacular music for generations — his 'blue yodels,' his train songs, and his guitar-picking influenced Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, and virtually every country artist who followed. He died of tuberculosis in New York in 1933, just 35 years old, having recorded prolifically in the final years of his life.

Rodgers worked as a railroad brakeman — hence the 'Singing Brakeman' nickname — and absorbed the music of Black railroad workers and Southern bluesmen directly on the job. His recordings for Victor beginning in 1927 established him as the first true country music star, and 'Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)' was one of the best-selling records of the 1920s. His friendship and recording partnership with Louis Armstrong was a rare moment of interracial collaboration in the segregated music industry of the era.

The Jimmie Rodgers Museum in Meridian is housed near his birth site and contains instruments, photographs, and memorabilia. Meridian also hosts an annual Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival. He is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Meridian. He was among the first inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.