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John Handy
Cap’t John Handy was inducted into MS Coast Jazz Society's Hall of Fame in 2004.
Captain John Handy, internationally famous alto sax player, Negro jazz musician, composer, and recording artist was posthumously inducted into the Mississippi Coast Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame on May 4, 2004, as part of the 6th Annual Jazz In The Pass JazzFest.
Handy was born in 1900 and died in 1970 at his Pass Christian, Mississippi home.
At his death, he was honored with two funerals, one in New Orleans, and one in Pass Christian where the first New Orleans style funeral procession on the Gulf Coast was held.
More than 4,000 mourners and participants gathered to “send him home.” The jazz great was even greater than he could imagine as he was eulogized in Life magazine and a special television documentary was produced by TV Channel 13 called the "Last Journey of a Jazz Man."
Captain Handy’s final public appearance, just two months prior to his death, was at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in April 1970 where he shared top billing with Mahalia Jackson.
Since his burial in 1970, the Capt. John Handy grave has lain bare. The Jazz In The Pass committee prepared a stone and plot covering to commemorate the Jazz great.
