Johnson, Robert Leroy
(1911–1938)
Johnson, Robert Leroy 8 May 1911; Hazelhurst, MS – 16 August 1938; Greenwood, MS Robert Leroy Johnson was a brilliant guitar technician and expressive singer who since his death at an early age has come to occupy a central position in blues history and legend. Johnson was born in Hazelhurst, Mississippi, the son of Noah Johnson, a laborer, and Julia Major. Major had been abandoned by her first husband Charles Dodds; within a few years she located him in Memphis, Tennessee, and placed her…