A storyline that author David W. Johnson develops in his biography The Life and Music of Booker “Bukka” White: Recalling the Blues is the strong connection between White and his more famous cousin, B. B. King. King’s grandmother Elnora Farr was the sister of Booker White’s mother, Lula Davidson White. Fittingly, the two blues-playing cousins both have milestone birthday anniversaries this year. 

This summer, the city of Memphis celebrated the 100^th anniversary of B. B. King’s birthday with “A Hundred Days of the Blues,” leading up to a gala musical event at B. B. King’s Blues on Beale Street on September 16. On that date in 1925, B. B. was born Riley King in Itta Bena, Mississippi. 

Booker White’s birth year is less certain. He consistently gave the same day, November 12, but in several different years. From 1910 census records and other sources, biographer Johnson settled on November 12, 1905, as the likely date. If so, November 12 will be the 120^th anniversary of Booker’s birth near Houston, Mississippi. 

As The Life and Music of Booker “Bukka” White recalls, Booker and B. B. knew each other well during B. B.’s youth and young manhood. When the younger cousin fled from Indianola, Mississippi, after damaging his employer’s tractor, he hitchhiked to Memphis and found his way to Booker’s house. The next day, Booker brought B. B. to work and recommended the eighteen-year-old to the bosses at the Newberry Equipment Company in Memphis. Booker was a welder’s assistant and worked at Newberry for sixteen years. For B. B., temporary work at the company allowed him to remain in Memphis long enough to meet the people who would help him become a radio host and performer on his next visit. 

After B. B. left Memphis to pursue his career, he and Booker lost touch. By 1973, they had become two very different blues musicians–one playing country blues on a National Steel guitar, and the other playing sophisticated material on a Gibson electric. Their paths crossed only once on the road until on April 3, 1973, they shared the stage for an afternoon at the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Festival. B. B. was to headline that evening’s show in a theater, and dropped by Booker’s afternoon set to jam. Booker’s biography includes photographs of this historic session. 

Four years later, B. B. King was on the road when Booker died at home in Memphis on February 26, 1977. Except for the loving care of his partner, Leola Morris, Booker White died alone and impoverished. Yet the two cousins may have remained connected. According to Booker’s daughter Irene Kertchaval, B. B. King paid for Booker’s grave marker in the city’s New Park Cemetery.