Northeast Times

Finally addressing
a grave injustice

By Brian Rademaekers
Times Staff Writer

For 35 years, the remains of Rosetta Tharpe have been in an unmarked grave in West Oak Lane’s Northwood Cemetery, just a few yards from 15th Street.
It could be regarded as just a depressing footnote to the final chapter in the life of an impoverished Philadelphian.
But to many people — even people around the world — Tharpe is much more than just another person who died too poor to afford a gravestone.
Her life was a grand celebration of music. Widely considered to have been gospel music’s first superstar, Tharpe, who was just 58 when she died in 1973, has had a lasting impact on American music and was an inspiration to a generation of iconic musicians — ranging from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash to Little Richard and The Who’s Pete Townsend.
The list goes on, and the stories of artists who say they owe their style to Tharpe are many. Which makes the empty plot that is her gravesite an unsettling and embarrassing reality to those who appreciate her contribution to American popular music.
That’s what motivated one person, Robert Merz, to do something about it.
"This was a woman who could pack concert halls and command triple encores," said Merz. "Elvis Presley once said that he would run home from school every day to listen to her records."
Tharpe, born in Arkansas in 1915, was touted as a guitar prodigy by age 6, and she stunned audiences with her prowess on that instrument for her entire life.
Many music historians describe her unique style as a lively blend of blues, jazz and gospel. Her work also is regarded in some circles as one of earliest forms of what later would be called rock ’n’ roll, a judgment that seems valid once you’ve heard her rollicking and surprisingly modern guitar riffs.
Tharpe’s biggest contribution, though, is often considered her role in bringing gospel music out of black churches and into mainstream American culture. That towering legacy grabbed the attention of Merz, who found Tharpe’s uncelebrated history in Philadelphia odd at best.

Merz, a Jenkintown native and author of books about Philly heroes Ryan Howard and racehorse Smarty Jones, learned of Tharpe’s unmarked grave last year while listening to an interview with Gayle Wald, who recently wrote a book about Tharpe’s life.
Appalled that Tharpe’s legacy in Philadelphia, where she lived for the final 16 years of her life, has been so under-appreciated, Merz contacted Wald to learn more about her gravesite.
Wald told Merz that others who were similarly shocked to learn of the unmarked grave in West Oak Lane had sent donations, but the money wasn’t sufficient for a marker.
That’s when Merz decided to put together a concert — it will be presented on Friday night at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside — to raise the funds that will finally place a proper memorial at Rosetta Tharpe’s gravesite.
The performance itself is likely to be one for the history books. On the bill are The Dixie Hummingbirds and Marie Knight, both legendary gospel acts in their own right who joined Tharpe on her groundbreaking tours during the 1940s.
Also appearing on the Keswick stage is Odetta, who was hailed as "the queen of American folk music" by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1961.
Other gospel artists paying tribute to Tharpe will be the Johnny Thompson singers, the Huff Singers and Willa Ward.
"These performers are pioneers of American music, and they are as important as they are forgotten," says David April, a Fishtown resident who hosts a weekly gospel show on Radio Delaware Valley 107.3 FM (as well as 107.9 FM in Bensalem). "This is going to be one of the last chances to see them all perform together, so it really is a historic concert."
Except for Odetta and Marie Knight, all the performers on Friday night’s lineup have deep Philadelphia roots, a testament to the city’s rich gospel history.
"Philadelphia was and still is a major gospel city," said April, who featured The Dixie Hummingbirds as guests on his Tuesday night show. "A lot of African-Americans came up here from the South in the thirties, and in that way gospel has the same history as jazz and blues."

It was that vibrant scene that brought Tharpe to Philadelphia in 1957. She first set up at the Carlyle Hotel on Poplar Street and later did sold-out shows at the nearby Metropolitan Opera House, along with The Dixie Hummingbirds, while continuing to tour in the U.S. and Europe.
Today, Poplar is also designated as Dixie Hummingbird Way between Broad and 21st streets in honor of the gospel greats.
In her final years, Tharpe had a dire case of diabetes, an illness that eventually required the amputation of a leg. During that time she lived with her third husband, Russell Morrison, at 11th and Master streets in the Yorktown section and continued to perform.
Exactly how Rosetta Tharpe ended up in an unmarked grave is a point of contention, but friends say that Morrison, who is deceased, managed Tharpe’s profits poorly and that he either didn’t have money for a headstone or wouldn’t pay the expense.
Roxie Moore, 91, a longtime friend of Tharpe’s who recalled her funeral at the Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia as "peaceful and quiet," put the blame for the unmarked grave on Morrison.
"With Russell, it was always like you had to do something to see Rosetta," said Moore. "He sure was something. He was always the guy in charge."
Tharpe, Moore explained, had an innocent and easygoing outlook that made her a vulnerable target for opportunistic people.
On the stage, though, Tharpe was a figure larger than life, Moore added. The two had met in Baltimore in the summer of 1937, when Tharpe was still touring on gospel tent circuits.
"She would have crowds of people standing all around, and she was really quite dynamic," recalled Moore. "She would have some people shouting, and some people crying."
It was the first time Moore saw a woman play a guitar. She says she hasn’t seen a guitar played quite like that since.
Another woman who recalls a similar life-changing meeting with Tharpe is Marie Knight, who will perform in honor of her old friend during the Keswick concert. As a young and not-yet-professional gospel singer, she met Tharpe after the musician left a note at her church.
Within a few weeks, at age 19, Knight left her home in Newark, N.J., to tour with Tharpe. The duo soon became one of the hottest acts in poplar music, with a string of big hits on the Decca label in the late 1940s.
"We had a saint-and-sinner act," Knight explained. "It worked beautiful. I had an old guitar, and she would play a song down to a certain point, and she would call me out to finish the song, but I only had one string on the guitar.
"Then I would go off the stage, and when I would come back out, the audience would be going wild, going real crazy, and then we would do the duet together the way it was supposed to be."
Knight said Tharpe stood out against other musicians of the time because of her incredible combination of smoking rhythm guitar and stunning vocals.
"She was a musician, and the way she played that guitar and sang, well, there was really no one around who was as famous as she was for that," said Knight, who performed a final song for Tharpe, Let Jesus Fix It For You, at her funeral.

Odetta, who came into the spotlight just as attention was beginning to turn from gospel and jazz to folk and rock ’n’ roll, said that the trailblazing Tharpe enabled her and others to take the stage in the 1960s.
"She is a part of that history that was so valuable and is so valuable to young blacks as we were coming along," said Odetta. "She is certainly a champion where the guitar is concerned. My playing was a fair rhythm guitar, but that woman could play the guitar."
Knight, Merz and Odetta agree that Tharpe’s story of being treated unfairly by history is painfully commonplace.
"It’s been many a year ago since Rosetta died, and why they want to put a marker there after all this time, I don’t know. It’s been a long time," said Knight. "She was a famous artist."
"Unfortunately, her story is not that uncommon," said Merz. "A lot of these musicians didn’t make a lot of money or get credit for their contributions, and ended up getting hosed over in one way or another."
The Keswick Theatre concert, he said, could be just the beginning of unearthing and honoring Tharpe’s legacy in Philadelphia.
Just last week, Gov. Ed Rendell, whom Merz called "a big gospel buff," declared Jan. 11 as "Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day."
Any concert proceeds that remain after purchase of the headstone for Tharpe’s grave will be contributed to music scholarship programs at Temple University and the Settlement Music School.
Merz also recently filed for a historical marker to be erected at Tharpe’s former home on Master Street.
"This really is about a lot more than just getting a headstone out there for Rosetta," said Merz. "It’s about uplifting some of these North Philadelphia neighborhoods. Philly is always looking for some winning sports team or a hero to put up on pedestal, and yet we have something like this right in our back yard and nobody even knows about it.
"Even if just one kid was to walk by her house or memorial and be inspired because they knew that such a great musician lived in their neighborhood, that would mean so much." ••

Some key details . . .

The Sister Rosetta Tharpe Benefit Concert takes place at the Keswick Theatre, 291 Keswick Ave. in Glenside, on Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. Performers include The Dixie Hummingbirds, Marie Knight, Odetta, the Johnny Thompson Singers with Willa Ward, and The Huff Singers.
For more information and tickets, call 215-572-7650.