On This Day in 1933, the “Father of Country Music” Left Us Two Days After Recording His Last Song

Country music in its current form wouldn’t exist if Jimmie Rodgers hadn’t driven to New York City from Tennessee in February 1928 and demanded RCA Victor talent scout Ralph Peer hear him sing. One of the songs Rodgers recorded, “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)”, topped the Victor sales list for 14 straight weeks. And suddenly, the Man known as “The Singing Brakeman” and “America’s Blue Yodeler” was country music’s first superstar.

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Unfortunately, his newfound audiences would only have Rodgers for five years. On this day (May 26) in 1933, the man often called the “Father of Country Music” died of tuberculosis at a New York City hotel. He was just 35 years old.

Jimmie Rodgers Became Country Music’s Biggest Star While Battling a Deadly Disease

In 1924, doctors diagnosed 27-year-old Jimmie Rodgers with tuberculosis, an infectious disease caused most often by bacteria in the lungs. His illness made it difficult to perform his duties as a railroad brakeman.

After Rodgers’ foreman complained about his excessive absences, he decided to shift to music. As a child in Meridian, Mississippi, he had won a talent contest at a local theater. In his teenage years, he worked as a waterboy for a crew of Black railroad workers. There, Rodgers became acquainted with their railroad work songs and the banjo.

Throughout his brief but meaningful career, Jimmie Rodgers recorded more than 100 songs, including country classics like “Waiting for a Train,” “Daddy and Home,” “In the Jailhouse Now,” “Frankie and Johnny,” and “My Old Pal”.

He toured with Will Rogers, recorded with the Carter Family, and performed alongside legendary jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong on “Blue Yodel Number 9 (Standin’ on the Corner).”

He Was in New York For One Final Recording Session

As his health worsened, Jimmie Rodgers kept performing, telling his wife he intended “to die with my shoes on.”

Following a near-fatal hospitalization in February 1933, the “Blue Yodeler” talked Peer into setting up one final recording session so that he could financially provide for his family even after death.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1930, Jimmie Rodgers Recorded “Blue Yodel No. 9” with an Uncredited Louis Armstrong on Trumpet]

Rodgers arrived in New York City three months later, spending the majority of his recording sessions in an easy chair, propped up by pillows to help him reach the microphone.

Due to his weakened state, he had to take frequent breaks to rest on a cot between takes.

Two days after wrapping up the session, Jimmie Rodgers experienced an intense coughing fit that resulted in hemorrhaging. He lapsed into a coma and died on May 26, 1933.

Featured image by Michael Levin/Corbis via Getty Images