William handy biography

Florence native William Christopher Handy – a musician, composer, arranger and publisher who became known as the “Father of the Blues” – grew up in a log cabin built by his grandfather, a former slave who served as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

As a child, Handy displayed a keen ear for music, cataloging the musical notes of songbirds, the whistles from nearby riverboats and the rolling rhythms of the Tennessee River.

He also played organ in his father’s church, Florence’s Greater St. Paul. Although spiritual music was encouraged in the Handy household, music of a secular nature was frowned upon by Handy’s father, who wanted his son to follow family tradition and become a minister.

Despite the lack of encouragement at home, Handy secretly saved enough money to buy a guitar that he saw in a local shop window.

When he proudly brought the instrument home, his father made him take it back to the store and William Handy Rutherford (1881 - 1946) - WikiTree MONYC