B.B. King would have turned 100 Tuesday. His legacy endures.

Mississippi Delta native B.B. King, affectionately known around the world as the “King of the Blues,” would have turned 100 years old Tuesday.

King, who passed away in 2015, is still celebrated by fans around the world.

Hundreds were expected to attend a birthday celebration Tuesday evening at B.B. King’s Blues Club on Beale Street in Memphis, which followed a block party on Beale Street on Sunday and celebrations this past weekend at Club Ebony in Indianola, the Delta hometown he claimed.

The show was set to feature Mississippi Blues legend Bobby Rush and include performances from Carla Thomas and Hi Rhythm, along with a special musical tribute by Shirley King and the B.B. King All-Star Legends.

“We’re looking to enjoy the music, the atmosphere,” Kara Kent, who traveled to the Bluff City from Seattle, told WREG.

FILE – In this Aug. 22, 2012 file photo, B.B. King performs at the 32nd annual B.B. King Homecoming in Indianola, Miss. A judge in Las Vegas is due to hear a bid by some of B.B. King’s heirs to obtain the late blues icon’s medical records. A lawyer for King’s estate, Brent Bryson, has called the scheduled Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, probate hearing a needless effort by disgruntled family members to raise questions about the care King received before he died May 14. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
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In this Aug. 22, 2012 photograph, the initials of 86-year-old B.B. King on the head of his guitar “Lucille” help him thrill a crowd of several hundred people at the 32nd annual B.B. King Homecoming, a concert on the grounds of an old cotton gin where he worked as a teenager many years ago, in Indianola, Miss. Now the place_ the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center _ is a monument to him and the blues. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
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In this photo taken May 6, 2015, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker is flanked by an oversized photograph of a young guitar playing B.B. King on the corner of Church and Second Streets in downtown Indianola, Miss. It is believed that King played there as a teenager. King died Thursday night, May 14, 2015, at age 89 in Las Vegas, where he had been in hospice care. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
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In this photo taken May 6, 2015, a wall mural of B.B. King overlooks a downtown parking area in Indianola, Miss. King claimed Indianola as his hometown after moving there as a teenager. The influence of the acclaimed “King of the Blues,” is seen throughout the small Mississippi Delta town. King died Thursday night, May 14, 2015, at age 89 in Las Vegas, where he had been in hospice care. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
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In this photo taken May 6, 2015, a commercial truck drives past the Mississippi Blues Trail marker that proclaims an area adjacent to Bear Creek in the Berclair Community near Itta Bena, Miss., as the birthplace of B.B. King. King claimed Indianola as his hometown after moving there as a teenager. King died Thursday, May 14, 2015, at age 89 in Las Vegas, where he had been in hospice care. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
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**ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND OF JUNE 30-JULY 1 ** Legendary bluesman B.B. King, photographed during a June 10, 2006 concert in Philadelphia, Miss., is embarking on a 16-city summer blues festival tour beginnng in late July 2007 and will follow up with a recording session with Grammy Award-winning producer T-Bone Burnett for a yet-to-be titled CD due out the first quarter of 2008. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
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This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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