MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Rhythm & blues pioneer
Rufus Thomas made his last trip to Beale Street on
Thursday with a brass band playing "Just a Closer Walk with Thee'' marching in front of his hearse.
Thomas, 84, was best known nationally for novelty hits like "Do the Funky Chicken'' and "Walking the Dog.'' But in Memphis, where he was still performing until shortly before his death Saturday, he was known as the city's "Ambassador of Beale Street.''
Beale Street, with its many nightspots, is known as the birthplace of the blues.
Always outgoing and upbeat, Thomas was remembered as a man with an infectious joy for life. "He was a mentor to me, one of the great, great people in our business, and to be honest with you, one of the greatest entertainers I ever met,'' music legend B.B. King said at Thomas' funeral.
Thomas, whose family moved to Memphis from rural Mississippi when he was a child, was a disc jockey in the late 1940s on WDIA, the South's first radio station with an all-black on-air staff.
He also was the host of a popular amateur talent show at Beale Street's old Palace Theater. The show helped entertainers, including King and bluesman Bobby "Blue'' Bland. get their starts. After the funeral, Thomas' body was taken in a motorcade through the Beale Street entertainment district.
King moved to Memphis from Mississippi as a young man, working odd jobs during the day and looking for places to perform at night. Thomas, who liked to refer to himself as the "world's oldest teen-ager,'' began his career as a tap dancer. He was always known for putting on a lively show and often took to the stage, even in his later years, wearing knee-length boots and a cape.
He cut his first record, "Bearcat,'' in 1953 at Sun Records, the small studio where Elvis Presley launched his career. "Bearcat'' was an answer to Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog,'' and it became Sun's first big hit.
In the 1960s, Thomas was one of the founding performers for Stax Records, which helped launch the careers of entertainers such as Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes. At the funeral, Hayes said Thomas was an inspiration for the struggling young entertainers at Stax. "All of us wanted to be a Bearcat,'' he said. With a solo piano for accompaniment, Hayes performed a soulful rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'' for the Thomas family.
