Meet a Missourian virtuoso: Blind Boone, a Black pianist who wowed Poplar Bluff in 1924. Boone was also a musical prodigy who began touring at age 15 and is now recognized as a profound force in America’s music history.
100 years ago
Sept. 5, 1924
• Before Stevie Wonder, there was John William Boone, a Black prodigy known to national audiences as “Blind Boone.” Last night the pianist, composer, singer and orator performed in Poplar Bluff for a packed house.
The concert featured 16 classical, ragtime and original compositions. He also wowed audiences with humorous piano impressions, like a late passenger train and a fiddler with a broken string, and a dramatic musical rendition of the destructive Marshfield Tornado. His most astounding feat was reproducing Godard’s “Second Mazurka” by ear almost perfectly after hearing it once, played by local musician Martha Howard. She picked the song for its obscurity, complexity and multiple key changes.
Boone told concertgoers he was born 60 years ago in a Union army camp near Warrensburg, Missouri, to a mother who escaped slavery. He was blinded by illness as an infant. Boone displayed great musical talent as a child — he was adept at harmonica by age 4 and organized a band when he was 7. His neighbors pooled their resources and sent him to a school for the blind in St. Louis, where he learned piano. Boone began touring at age 15 and eventually achieved national fame. This was his fourth concert in Poplar Bluff.
Boone called his talent “a Divine gift.” He’s recognized today as a formative force in American music.
Editor’s note: Boone’s fascinating story is detailed in full — with musical recordings — online at https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/blind-boone/. His home in Columbia is on the National Registry of Historic Places and a park in Warrensburg now bears his name.
75 years ago
Sept. 5, 1949 — No issues available.
50 years ago
Sept. 5, 1974
• In Corning, Arkansas, a libel trial against a Northeast Arkansas publisher began with the district judge overruling complaints by the defense.
Attorneys for Joseph H. Weston of the Sharp County Citizen unsuccessfully claimed the criminal action against their client was unconstitutional. Weston’s newspaper attacked public officials and private citizens for months in 1973 and he faces three criminal libel charges for allegations made about the Clay County Sheriff and a deputy.
Before the trial began, Weston told reporters he’d sue the prosecution for “millions.”