Friday, November 23, 2012

CountyLineMagazine.com: KTXK 91.5 FM in Texarkana honors 'Joplin on 144th birthday' 2-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012

Scott Joplin is featured at AfriClassical.com

County Line Magazine 

By Tom Geddie
October 27, 2012


He was born as the second of six children of Florence Givins and Giles Joplin near Linden on, by most accounts, November 24, 1868, the first of several well known musicians from the town including bluesman Aaron “T-Bone” Walker, rocker Don Henley, and Richard Bowden, who’s been called – perhaps by himself – America’s most famous unknown entertainer.


When he was seven years old, the young Joplin moved with his family to Texarkana. He was already playing banjo and was just beginning to learn to play the piano that would make him famous.

Joplin’s mother cleaned homes and he practiced his music on pianos in those homes. His mother, who also played banjo, and father, who helped lay rail tracks and played fiddle, bought him a piano in 1882 and he received free lessons that gave him a well-rounded knowledge of classical music form.

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