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Rufus Thomas March.27.1917 - December.15.2001

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Rufus Thomas, Jr.
Born a sharecropper's son in the rural community of Cayce, Mississippi, Thomas moved to Memphis with his family at age 2. His mother was “a church woman.” Thomas made his artistic debut at the age of 6 playing a frog in a school theatrical production. Much later in life, he would impersonate all kinds of animals: screeching cats, funky chickens and penguins, and mournful dogs.

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Rufus Thomas Interview

Rufus Thomas News

Rufus Thomas: His R&B Recordings

Source: Black Grooves

Rufus Thomas is best known as the Memphis soul singer who, along with daughter Carla Thomas, helped the fledgling Stax label rise to fame in the ‘60s and ‘70s. His biggest hits-”Do the Funky Chicken” and “Walking the Dog“–not only became his signature songs, but established Thomas as a consummate entertainer. Not surprisingly, he first honed these skills as a vaudeville performer and emcee for shows down on Beale Street.

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Rufus Thomas Music

Source: Stax Records

He was the baby of five children born to Rufus Thomas. Sr. (Yes, Rufus was a Junior). His remarkable sense of humor was picked up from all the members of his family. Sisters Elizabeth, Willie, Eva and Dorothy were all natural comics but big brother Morris was the clown prince of all the siblings and influenced his little brother more than he (Rufus) probably realized. The family packed up and moved to Memphis when Rufus was about 2 years old. His childhood was filled with all the normal thoughts of small boys...with one exception. He wanted to be a tap dancer in the Negro (the newly adopted descriptive term of the times) minstrel shows. By the time he entered Booker T. Washington High School, the desire had crystallized.

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Rufus Thomas Biography

Source: Oldies.com

A singer, dancer and entertainer, Thomas learned his trade as a member of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a vaudeville-inspired touring group. By the late 40s he was performing in several Memphis nightclubs and organizing local talent shows. B.B. King, Bobby Bland and Junior Parker were discovered in this way. When King’s career subsequently blossomed, Thomas replaced him as a disc jockey at the black-owned radio station WDIA and remained there until 1974, fronting the influential shows House Of Happiness and Special Delivery and acting as a mentor to many of the city’s blues, soul and rock musicians.

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Rufus Thomas Rhythm and Blues

Source: Lyrics Fresk

Thomas attended one semester at Tennessee A&I University, but due to economic conditions left to pursue a career as a professional entertainer, joining up in 1936 with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, an all-black revue that toured the South. He then worked for twenty-two years at a textile plant and didn't leave that job until about 1963, around the time of his hits. He started at WDIA in 1951 (despite biographies placing his start a year earlier). At WDIA, he hosted an afternoon show called Hoot and Holler. WDIA, featuring an African-American format, was known as "the mother station of the Negroes" and became an important source of blues and R&B music for a generation, its audience consisting of white as well as black listeners.

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Rufus Thomas History

Source: Cascade Blues Association

In the late 1940s, Memphis radio station WDIA became the first black-operated station in the country, and Rufus Thomas took a job as a disc jockey, where he helped to break the careers of such musicians as Bobby "Blue"Bland, B.B. King, Ike Turner, Roscoe Gordon and Junior Parker. All while still performing himself. In 1953, Rufus recorded the single, "Bear Cat" for the Memphis Recording Studio, later to be known as Sun Records.

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