MS SC609

Recognizes Mavis Staples upon receiving the 18th Annual "Living Blues Magazine" Award for 2011 Blues Artist of the Year (Female) and Most Outstanding Blues Singer of the Year.

Honors Staples as an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Staple Singers in 1999 and acknowledges her recognition as one of the "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll."

Highlights Staples' career as lead vocalist of the Staple Singers (1950s-1970s), her solo work including the 2004 album "Have a Little Faith," and her 2005 Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement on behalf of the Staple Singers.

Notes Staples' Mississippi heritage through her father Roebuck "Pops" Staples, who learned guitar from bluesman Charley Patton on Mississippi's Dockery Plantation and later organized gospel quartets in Chicago.

Directs presentation of the resolution to Mavis Staples, the Mississippi Arts Commission, and the Capitol Press Corps.