At first, James Carter thought the $20,000 royalty check in his hands was a joke, his daughter said. After all, the circumstances sounded astonishing: Someone had recorded Mr. Carter and some other inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary singing “Po Lazarus” decades earlier, sold it to Hollywood, and sold 5 million copies of the album?
All of it was true. And by early 2002, Mr. Carter, a retired shipping clerk from Chicago, and his family were at the Grammys in Los Angeles watching as the soundtrack to the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” won for album of the year. “My father loved it,” said Elizabeth Scott, Mr. Carter’s daughter. “It was a life-changing experience.”
Mr. Carter, 77, died Wednesday, Nov. 26, in West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park following a massive stroke, family members said.
“He wasn’t in tip-top shape, but it helped him push on,” his daughter said of the trip. “He always talked about wanting to go to California.”
The Oak Park resident was born far from the glamor of Hollywood, in the town of Sunflower, Miss., on Dec. 18, 1925. The son of a sharecropper, Mr. Carter grew up on the family farm, his daughter said.
Mr. Carter left home when he was 13 and enlisted in the Navy by 19, his daughter said. After being discharged two years later, Mr. Carter married his childhood sweetheart, Rosie Lee Carter, in 1946.
Mr. Carter moved from job to job until he was arrested for theft, landing him on work detail at Parchman Farm. In September 1959, musicologist Alan Lomax made a third and final trip to the penitentiary in search of “authentic folk material,” said Nathan Salsburg, production coordinator of the Alan Lomax Collection in New York.
Captivated by singing as a means to motivate through adversity, Lomax recorded some inmates singing “Po Lazarus,” with Mr. Carter singing the lead, Salsburg said. But at the time, Mr. Carter thought nothing of Lomax or his recordings.
“He used to just sing to pass the time away,” Scott said. “It was the normal thing to do. It helped make the day go faster.”
After being released from prison, Mr. Carter headed straight for Chicago, where he reunited with his wife, a minister who had started Holy Temple Community Church of God on West Harrison Street, and he started working as a shipping clerk for Dryco Manufacturing, his daughter said.
Mr. Carter retired in the mid-1970s, his daughter said, and helped manage some residential properties the family owned on the West Side. He took up hobbies like woodcarving and jewelry making until his health began to fail, Scott said.
Meanwhile Alan Lomax’s collection of music had become a source for eclectic sound for many popular musicians and producers. Lomax’s recording of Mr. Carter’s “Po Lazarus” caught the ear of T-Bone Burnett, who was producing the soundtrack for “O Brother, Where Are Thou?” After adding the sound to the album, the company made it a priority to find Mr. Carter.
“We want to make sure any royalties that are owed are paid to the rightful parties,” Salsburg said. “James had never heard of the movie or the soundtrack, and had no recollection of being recorded by Alan, though he did remember singing `Po Lazarus’ in his days at Parchman.”
The archive found Mr. Carter through his wife’s church, his daughter said, and the news came at an ideal time. Her father, a religious man, had begun to lose his faith as he became more debilitated. But going to the Grammys–and flying on a plane for the first time–excited him, Scott said.
“I believe this did bring him closer to the Lord,” she said. “The odds of this happening to somebody are very, very slim. And the good thing is that they were able to find him, and he was able to be recognized while he was still living.”
Mr. Carter also is survived by his wife of 57 years, Rosie Lee Carter; two other daughters, Hattie Tucker and Cora Macklin; and nine grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Living Word Christian Center, 7600 W. Roosevelt Rd. in Forest Park. Memorial services will follow.
