B.B. King Awarded Mississippi Medal of Service
B.B. King’s contribution to the world of music has been officially recognised by the state in which he grew up, Mississippi.
The Mississippi Medal of Service award was created in 2009 by Gov. Haley Barbour, who was also there to present the award at the Woolfolk building in downtown Jackson. There were a total of eleven recipients of this year’s award, as well as over 100 additional attendees to the ceremony.
The award given to B.B. King broke precedent, as it is the first that time that this medal has been awarded in absentia, as B.B. King himself was not able to attend. He does, however, join the likes of Jackson businessman Jim Barksdale and former University of Mississippi Chancellor Robert Khayat in accepting the award this year. Of course, anyone is able to qualify for award, whether they have carried out significant amount of charity work, or become a prominent partypoker player in international championships. The main qualification for those being given the award was that they had had a significant influence on the state as a whole.
Gov. Haley Barbour also compared B.B. King to a number of the other musical icons to have come out of Mississippi, such as Elvis Presley, who became known as the ‘King of Rock’n'Roll’, as well as country musician Jimmy Rogers. Of course, this is far from the first time that B.B. King has been given an award for his contribution to the world of music, but it is perhaps the first time that he has been recognised by his state’s political body for doing so. Although B.B. King has performed in Mississippi in the past, he does not currently have any future performances scheduled for this state.
