Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown: Adding Insult To Injury!

Back in July, I wrote about Bobby Brown, brother of legendary blues artist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and local Orange, Texas educator Robert Finch and their efforts to raise funds to place a proper tombstone on the final resting place of the phenomenal roots music guitarist.

Tragically, Brown's grave has remained unmarked by any stone or marker since his death in 2005. Hurricane Katrina forced Brown to evacuate his Louisiana home, which he lost in the storm, and relocate to Orange, his former hometown. A week after Brown's death, Hurricane Rita blew through Texas and blew away a temporary marker on his grave.

Adding insult to injury, the recent devastation sown by Hurricane Ike as it stomped through Southeast Texas also heaped personal devastation on Gatemouth Brown's family. As flood waters from the nearby Sabine River surged through Hollywood Cemetery, the top of Brown's burial vault was forced off and his bronze casket simply floated away, one of over a dozen to do so. City officials are already at work reclaiming and indentifying the caskets for reburial, but can't Ma Nature just leave Mr. Brown alone?

"Somebody made the comment that he’s evidently still touring," Jim Bateman, Brown’s manager and friend for 29 years, told the St. Tammany News (Louisiana). "He probably wouldn’t care too much to be in the ground anyway."

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Photo by James Minchin, courtesy Universal Music