INDIANOLA, Miss. — A black granite slab now marks the gravesite of B.B. King, the blues icon who died nearly seven months ago in Las Vegas but was returned for burial in his beloved native Mississippi as he wished.

More than 100 relatives, friends, fans and former employees gathered Friday to dedicate the stone that eventually will become the centerpiece of a memorial garden outside the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center.

B.B. King plays at his club in New York. King, who died peacefully at his Las Vegas home in May at age 89, will be honored with a memorial garden around his grave outside a museum dedicated to his life. The Associated Press

King was buried May 30 outside the museum in Indianola, the Delta cotton country town where he first sang and played guitar on street corners as a young man.

For months, the gravesite was adorned with just a wreath and a chain-link fence. Architectural drawings for the memorial garden show benches and song titles engraved on metal panels. It will be part of a $4.5 million expansion of the museum that tells King’s life story.

“Some folks might argue that the blues is the greatest export from Mississippi … and the greatest purveyor of that music was B.B. King,” state Sen. John Horhn of Jackson said during the dedication ceremony.

One of King’s top hits, “The Thrill Is Gone,” played from loudspeakers as a black cloth was pulled back to reveal the ledger engraved with his birth name, Riley B. King, and his signature. Also engraved in gold on the stone are lyrics from “Take It Home,” a song on his 1979 album of the same name.

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