Blind Boy Fuller

Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen, July 10, 1904 – February 13, 1941) was an American blues guitarist and singer. Fuller was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont bluesartists, rural African Americans, along with Blind Blake, Josh White, and Buddy Moss.

Allen was born in Wadesboro, North Carolina, United States, one of ten children of Calvin Allen and Mary Jane Walker. Most sources date his birth to 1907, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc indicate 1904. After the death of his mother, he moved with his father to Rockingham, North Carolina. As a boy he learned to play the guitar and also learned from older singers the field hollers, country rags, traditional songs and blues popular in poor rural areas. Fuller underwent a suprapubic cystostomy in July 1940, probably due to the urethral stricture noted on Fuller’s death certificate, a narrowing or blockage of the urethra which can be caused by syphilitic chancres, infections from gonorrhea, or chlamydia, but continued to require medical treatment. He died at his home in Durham, North Carolina, on February 13, 1941. The cause of death was pyemia, due to an infected bladder, gastrointestinal tract and perineum, plus kidney failure.

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