[Music] I've Got the Blues I feel so lonely I'd
give the world if I could only make you understand it surely would be grand I'm going to
Telegraph my thank you for joining us on another episode of Tombstone tea where we take a walk
through history in the cemeteries and today we are in Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens in Thornton
Illinois to visit the grave of Edith Wilson who was a Blues singer here in Chicago she began
as a stage actress and then she was assigned to Colombia records after being discovered in
a stage play and she actually sang for Duke Ellington in The Cotton Club and she performed
with Louis Armstrong, Bill Bojangles, Robinson, Cab Callaway and she was actually the very
first Aunt Jemima, the very first one, but unfortunately due to controversy from the
african-american community they felt like, you know, she was shucking and Jiving so she quit
being Aunt Jemima she toured and recorded several albums and she actually died in 1981 and then here
on this long pathway in the back of the cemetery we're actually going to visit the grave of two
important people in black history the first one that we are going to visit is Marshall Major
Taylor who was actually the fastest cyclist in the world now Major Taylor was born in 1878
in Indianapolis and by 1897 he was considered the fastest bicycle rider in the world he had
established several World Records in bicycle racing and in 1899 he won the World Championship
in bicycle Sprint racing he was the second African-American to earn a world championship and
he toured Europe in the early 1900s becoming the European bicycle Sprint Champion of that year and
then he also traveled to Australia to become the Sprint Champion there as well and he moved to
Illinois later on in his life and he died of a heart attack in 1932 pretty penniless and actually
what happened was he was buried in a Pauper's grave and the Schwinn company actually paid for
him to be reinterred here with a proper burial marker and then the next grave that is right
nearby is the grave of Duke Slater now Frederick Wayman Duke Slater was born in 1898 and he was an
All-American football player for the Iowa Hawkeyes leading them to a 1921 National Championship
he also joined the NFL becoming the first black lineman in league history and he also earned
his law degree in 1928 and began to practice law in Chicago and then in 1948 he was elected
to the Cook County Municipal Court becoming just the second african-american judge in Chicago
History to be elected to that position and he served as a Chicago judge for nearly two decades
he was married he didn't have any children but he was buried here with his wife after passing
away in 1966 at the age of 67 from stomach [Music] cancer the last grave that we are going
to visit today is of jazz musician Walter B Barnes Jr who was the leader of the Royal Creolians and
he was actually the first black musician to play on radio out of Chicago and that is believed to
be because he was friends with Al Capone and his family and he also was playing at the Rhythm
Club in Mississippi in 1940 the club actually caught on fire and it claimed the lives of more
than 200 people including most of the members of his band and he actually ordered the band to
play some music to try to calm the crowd but unfortunately all of them passed away so thank
you for joining us on this episode of Tombstone tea through the wonderful beautiful grounds of
Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens we have one more episode of Mount Glenwood we are going to visit
the grave of Elijah Muhammad in their family plot so I hope to see you next time on Tombstone
tea and as of always make sure to click the like button and subscribe to our newest videos
make sure those notifications are on and leave us a comment or two we like to hear a little
bit of feedback all right see you next time