Roebuck “Pops” Staples, one of the foremost figures in American gospel music as a singer, guitarist, and patriarch of the Staple Singers family group, was born on a farm near Winona on December 28, 1914. He began playing blues as a youngster in the Delta, but by the time he left for Chicago in 1936 he had embarked on a gospel singing career. He later fused old-time religion and the blues with an activist commitment to peace, equality, and brotherhood to create inspirational message songs that transcended the traditional boundaries of gospel music. Under his guidance, the Staple Singers earned the title “the first family of gospel music” and also developed followings among blues, soul, folk, rock, and jazz audiences, later enjoying crossover success in rhythm and blues and pop. Staples traced his style to the hymns and spirituals he learned from his grandfather and the blues he heard in Mississippi. Roebuck and his older brother Sears, the last two of fourteen Staples children, were named after the Chicago mail order company. The family lived around Mayfield and Kilmichael until moving to Dr. Joseph David Swinney’s plantation west of Minter City about 1918 and then to Will Dockery’s near Drew about 1923. Inspired by Charley Patton and Howlin’ Wolf, Staples took up guitar and frequented local juke house parties, but he also sang in church and at local gospel gatherings, sometimes with the Golden Trumpets in Carroll and Montgomery counties. Although he stayed on the gospel path, he remained a lifelong blues fan and was a friend to many blues singers, including Wolf, Muddy Waters, Albert King, and B. B. King. Another brother, David, played blues guitar before becoming a preacher, and a famous relative born years later was Oprah Winfrey, whose great-grandmother was Roebuck’s aunt, Ella Staples. Staples’ children Cleotha and Pervis were born at Dockery, and Yvonne, Mavis, and Cynthia were born after the family moved to Chicago. He put the guitar aside for several years while working as a laborer to support his family, though he sang locally with the Trumpet Jubilees. Around 1948 he formed a family group, and soon the Staple Singers were performing at area churches and gospel shows. Their 1956 recording of “Uncloudy Day” brought widespread attention within and beyond the gospel world. Among their many later hits, most featuring Mavis Staples’ lead vocals, were “I’ll Take You There,” “Respect Yourself,” and “Let’s Do It Again.” Though Staples said he was not a blues singer, he collaborated with Albert King and Steve Cropper on the Stax album Jammed Together, won a Grammy in the Contemporary Blues category in 1994 for Father Father, received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1992, was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship in 1998, and saw the Staple Singers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. He died on December 19, 2000.
