Blues trail marker in Miss. to honor Jimmie Rodgers ASSOCIATED PRESS MERIDIAN, Miss. The "Singing Brakeman" got a tribute from the Mississippi Blues Commission when a marker was unveiled May 3 in Meridian. The unveiling of the Jimmie Rodgers marker was held in conjunction with the 54th annual festival honoring the bluesman. The marker is located at Singing Brakeman Park. Rodgers, known as the "Father of Country Music," recorded more than 120 songs. Born in Meridian on Sept. 8, 1897, Rodgers was also known as the "Singing Brakeman" for his work on the railroad. He made his first recording in 1927. Rodgers died of tuberculosis at the age of 35 in May 1933 in New York City. He was the first performer elected to Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame. Alex Thomas, Heritage Trails director with the Mississippi Development Authority, told The ClarionLedger that more than a third of Rodgers' recordings were blues, which he was exposed to as a young man working as a railroad brakeman. Rodgers recorded the song "Blue Yodel" in 1927. The song sold more than a million copies and won him another nickname "The Blue Yodeler."
