Mr. Bland was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 1997.
Robert Calvin Brooks was born on Jan. 27, 1930, in Millington, Tenn.,
just north of Memphis. His father, I. J. Brooks, abandoned the family
when Bobby was very young. His mother, Mary Lee, married Leroy
Bridgeforth, who also went by the name Leroy Bland, when Bobby was 6.
Mr. Bland dropped out of school in the third grade to work in the cotton
fields. Though he never learned to write music or play an instrument,
he cited the music of the pioneering blues guitarist T-Bone Walker as an
early influence.
