Lightnin' Hopkins Birthplace — Centerville, Texas

Sam 'Lightnin'' Hopkins was born on March 15, 1912, in Centerville, Texas, and became one of the most recorded blues musicians in history — a solo acoustic guitarist whose recordings for Aladdin, Gold Star, Prestige, and dozens of other labels captured an improvisational fluency and a specific East Texas blues sound that was different from anything else. Hopkins was a one-man genre: his guitar playing conversed with itself, bass notes and treble melody trading call and response, while his lyrics were created spontaneously in the moment of performance, addressing whatever was in front of him — the recording engineer, the studio, the day's news.

Hopkins met Blind Lemon Jefferson as a child — Jefferson was a family acquaintance — and absorbed the Texarkana blues tradition directly. He spent most of his life in Houston's Third Ward, where he was a neighbourhood institution and a reluctant celebrity, preferring to drink and gamble locally rather than tour. The folk revival of the 1960s brought him to concert halls and college campuses, and his recordings were released on Prestige Bluesville and other folk-oriented labels to a white audience discovering the blues.

Centerville is in Leon County in east-central Texas. A Texas historical marker acknowledges Hopkins's birth in the area. Houston's Third Ward — his home for most of his adult life and the community that sustained him — is the more significant geography of his career. Hopkins died in Houston in January 1982. The Third Ward's Dowling Street, where he was a regular presence, bears a historical marker in his honour.