Court names bluesman Robert Johnson's heir

JACKSON, Miss. - Bluesman Robert Johnson's royalties will go to a retired gravel-truck driver whose mother had a fling with the musician in 1931, the Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled.

Claud Johnson's paternity case was bolstered by a witness to one of his mother's sexual encounters with Robert Johnson, who wrote such blues standards as "Me and the Devil Blues," "Crossroads Blues" and "Rambling on My Mind."

As sole heir, the Crystal Springs man is entitled to about $1 million from record royalties.

"Mr. Claud is happy that he's finally been vindicated about what he has known all his life, that he is the son of Robert Johnson," said his lawyer, Jeffrey Ellis.

Robert Johnson died a pauper at age 27 in 1938 and left no will. He produced 41 records.

Claud Johnson's mother, the late Virgie Jane Smith Cain, had identified the singer as his father in a 1992 deposition. Her childhood friend, Eula Mae Williams, testified in a 1998 nonjury trial that she watched the couple have sex in 1931.

The court dismissed complaints about lack of DNA evidence by two distant Johnson relatives.

The proof "would be nigh impossible to obtain since Johnson's grave site is unknown. As far as we know, Johnson is buried down by the highway side, so `his old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride,' " Supreme Court Justice Mike Mills wrote, quoting a line about the blues guitarist.

Seeking a share of Johnson's royalties were retired schoolteacher Annye Anderson of Amherst, Mass., and Robert Harris, a musician from Annapolis, Md. They are the half-sister and grandson of Robert Johnson's late half-sister.

They had questioned the validity of Claud Johnson's birth certificate, which lists laborer R.L. Johnson as his father, and whether the musician died of syphilis, as indicated on his death certificate. The disease can affect fertility.