BULLOCH BALDWIN COUNTY, GA - BIOS Blind Willie McTell ***************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm *********************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Michael Gray Blind Willie McTell, real name Willie Samuel McTier, an African-American, was born in the Happy Valley area of Thomson, McDuffie County, Georgia, in 1898 or 1901, most likely on May 5th. His mother is believed to have been a Minnie Watkins, from Jefferson County, and his father an Ed McTier of McDuffie. At the age of about 7 he moved with his mother to the city of Statesboro, Bulloch County, Georgia. Blind from birth, he never behaved as if this were a handicap, and went on to become the pre-eminent blues musician of the whole Piedmont region and blues style. He was a great 12-string guitarist and wrote a number of songs including 'Statesboro Blues', made famous as a rock hit by the Allman Brothers in the 1970s. McTell recorded first in 1927. He was recorded in Atlanta in 1940 for the Library of Congress. In later life Blind Willie McTell was also a gospel singer and a member of several church congregations. He died on August 19, 1959, in Milledgeville State Hospital, Baldwin County, after suffering a second stroke. He married Ruth Kate Williams, of Wrens GA, in 1934 but his longest-lasting and most significant relationship was with his second wife, Helen Edwards McTell, nee Broughton, whose family came from Brickstore in Newton County GA. They lived together in Atlanta until her death in late 1958. I am interested in tracing any living relative of Helen Broughton Edwards McTell, as well as in solving the mystery of where she is buried.