Born January 29 1885 in Mooringsport Louisiana, Died December 6, 1949 in New York of ALS, Lou Gehrig's desease. Leadbelly started out in Shreveport La. about 1900 at 15 years old. He had a knack for getting into trouble right from the beginning. He spent a lot of time in prison on various charges such as murder, assault and other violent crimes. Most of them were race related. He was given a full pardon in 1925 by the then Governor Neff. He wrote a lot of favorites still around today. Among them were "Rock Island Line", "Midnight Special", "Goodnight Irene", and "Cotton Fields".