Algernon Alexander, internationally recognized as a father of Texas Blues, was born into abject poverty on September 12, 1900 in Jewett, Leon County, Texas, and was raised in Richards, Texas, by his grandmother, Sally Beavers. While working in the cotton fields and for the railroad, he learned the Blues, a new expressive style of emotional and spiritual music sung by African Americans. Recording as "Texas" Alexander from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, he made over 69 recordings for Okeh and Vocalion records, including the first known recording of the famous folk song "House of the Rising Sun." He performed with leading Blues artists of the era, including the Mississippi Sheiks and Lonnie Johnson, and mentored dozens of others, including his nephew Lightnin' Hopkins, his cousin Frankie Lee Sims and Lowell Fulson. He died in poverty in Richards, Texas, on April 14, 1954.