April 30, 1983 McKinley Morganfield (Muddy Waters), blues musician and “the father of Chicago Blues,” died.

Waters was born April 4, 1913 in Issaquena County, Mississippi. He started out playing the harmonica but by age 17 he was playing the guitar at parties. In 1943, Waters moved to Chicago and drove a truck and worked in a factory by day and performed at night. Waters had his first big hits in 1948 with “I Can’t Be Satisfied” and “I Feel Like Going Home.” Other hits include “Rollin’ Stone” (1950), “Hoochie Coochie Man” (1954), “Mannish Boy” (1955), and “Got My Mojo Working” (1956), all of which have been listed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as amongst the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

Waters won Grammy Awards for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk in 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1978, and 1979. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980. In 1987, Waters was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1992 he was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1994, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honor. His biography, “Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters,” was published in 2002.