With a bellowing voice and masterful piano playing, Mercy Dee Walton emerged as an early influence in rhythm and blues not only in Waco but across the country. Towering figures such as Ma Rainey and Fats Domino are rightfully remembered as foundational for the blues and later rock n’ roll, but artists with less recording opportunities, like Walton, also shaped the country’s music scene in the early twentieth century. Walton grew up on the water. His parents, Fred and Bessie Walton, worked...
