Herman Poole "Sonny" Blount - Sun Ra - Alabama

[BeBop]

I've got a job coming up in the Birmingham area. So I'm looking around for places to stay. There's a Blount County, and the Blount name on a bunch of other geographic points. Okay. The place is named after Governor Willie Blount of Tennessee who provided assistance to settlers in Alabama during the Creek War of 1813-14. Fair enough.

But so I'm thinking about Birmingham native, Sonny Blount/Sun Ra/Le Sony'r Ra. Poking around, trying to find a connection back to the Governor or maybe to a place name. Just a coincidence? Seems unlikely. Don't have my Sun Ra bio at-hand, and not finding an easy answer on the web.

Wikipedia tells me he was named after the popular vaudeville stage magician Black Herman (Benjamin Rucker), so that gets me the given first name.

And so I turn to the Org'niss'mo Boards. Any knowers? Need help to avoid tossing an turning all night in that Motel 6 bed, pondering the meaning.

[Chuck Nessa]

Slaves often took the name of the owner. Ra probably came from "stock" bred on a Blount property.

[BeBop]

Thank you. All it required was knowledge of American history overlaid with some "common" sense. No wonder I was stumped.

[JSngry]

Tell you what - when/if you get into the Birmingham airport, there's a "restaurant" called The Magic City. Have a camera handy for that one.