A former Itta Bena resident and blues legend will be honored with a Mississippi Blues Trail marker Thursday.
Music dealer, promoter and talent scout Ralph Lembo, who died in 1960, provided recording opportunities for musicians in the Delta.
These musicians included such people and groups as the Mississippi Sheiks, Rubin Lacy, Bukka White, Charley Patton and Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2.
A Sicilian immigrant who became a prominent Itta Bena citizen, Lembo owned grocery, furniture, musical instrument, phonograph, radio and record stores throughout the area including in Greenwood and Swiftown.
A Blues Trail marker is tentatively scheduled to be unveiled at 2 p.m. in Itta Bena between Humphreys Street and the Columbus and Greenville Railway. The marker applauds Lembo for being “internationally acclaimed among music historians for his seminal role in recording Mississippi blues and gospel artists.”
“He was a part of lesser known history of the blues of distributing and recording records,” said music historian Scott Barretta of Greenwood.
One person especially excited about this marker is Lembo’s grandson and namesake, Ralph “Bo” Prestidge, who said the family is pleased to have this honor bestowed on its ancestor.
“Everybody is thrilled about it because, you know, he was one of the original people and he really had a lot of love for music. And he helped start a lot of artists,” he said.
Prestidge, who said he lives on the Leflore County farm that was originally bought by his grandfather, never got to meet the man for whom he was named because Lembo died when Prestidge was only a year old. But, he said he has heard many stories about his grandfather’s life and legacy.
“He’s a guy that started at ground zero of the blues and had a lot of people who loved him,” he said. “I can’t even go a day without people telling me about him; old timers, they still tell our family stories. So, he must have had a pretty big part in this area, from Itta Bena to Greenwood.”
- Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. On Twitter at @AdamBakst_GWCW.a
