Musicians’ Graves
Carl Cunningham (1948-1967) played drums in Otis Redding’s band, the Bar-Keys.
He died in a plane crash at Lake Monona, outside Madison, Wisconsin, along with Otis Redding, Matthew Kelly (Otis Redding’s valet), Jimmy King (Bar-Kay’s guitarist), Phalon R. Jones Jr. (Bar-Kay’s tenor saxophonist) and pilot Richard Fraser.
The band was traveling to Madison, Wisconsin in Otis Redding’s Beechcraft H-18 to play a concert at the Factory nightclub, near the University of Wisconsin, when the plane crashed in Lake Monona.
Carl Cunningham, Jimmy King and Matthew Kelly are buried in adjacent plots in New Park Cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee
The GPS location of the graves is N 35º 01.666’ W 90º 04.121’
The graves of Carl Lee Cunningham (background) Jimmy King and Matthew Kelly (foreground), New Park Cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee
Phalon R. Jones Jr. is buried in a different section of New Park Cemetery.
Here is a video of Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays performing Try A Little Tenderness, on 9 December 1967 on the Upbeat TV show in Cleveland, Ohio, one day before the plane crash at Lake Monona, Wisconsin.
The funeral for Carl Cunningham was held at Clayborn Temple in Memphis, Tennessee.
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