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Read the press release here.

B.B. King's Daughter Honors The Late Legend at Oak Street Health

 Shirley King sang some of her father's hits at the health center, at 3348 W. 87th St. Thursday.
Shirley King
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CHICAGO — Shirley King said she's cried only once since her father, the late great B.B. King, died just over a week ago.

"And that was when they wouldn't let me see him before he was gone. That hurt," she told the small crowd that gathered at Oak Street Health, 3348 W. 87th St., to hear her sing some of her father's most beloved tunes.

 

Shirley King, daughter of B.B. King, celebrating her father's life at Oak Street Health #wangdangdoodle #bbking #blues

A video posted by Josh McGhee (@thevoiceofjosh) on

 

The small performance was supposed to be a combination celebration of May birthdays and of the Blues legend's life at Shirley's urging. But a quick show of hands revealed only one birthday and the crowd let her know they were here to celebrate the life of the "Blues Boy."

"My daddy didn't want to quit," she told the crowd of 30 or so gathered around her before the performance. "When you ask him that one famous question — B.B. when are you going to retire? — [he'd say] 'There's no retirement. What would I retire and do? When I retire it's going to be time for me to go home.' He predicted what would happen."

"When he went down on the stage October the third 2014 here in Chicago at the House of Blues he knew. It was like OK this is it for me. Honey are you ready? I've had you around me all your life you see how it goes. Now, it's up to you," she told the crowd adding she wouldn't be play Lucille, her father's patented guitar, but "I sing the blues and I shake a mean hip."

Shirley then invited the elderly crowd to clap, sing and shake their hips confidently as she sang her father's hits knowing doctors were just a few doors down, she joked.

According to Vanessa Hall, Director of Media and Government Relations for Oak Street Health, Shirley began performing at several of the company's locations after wandering in to use a computer and receiving health care advice from the company.

While she started off performing for free, the company now reimburses her for the performances, Hall said.

"She loves to perform so we've given her a place to do so. And she loves it," Hall said.

Shirley said after the performance she would be spending the next few weeks following her father's body from Las Vegas to Memphis until he's finally laid to rest at the B.B. King Museum in his hometown of Indianola, Mississippi.

Full memorial and funeral arrangements are available here.

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