Claud Johnson | Son of blues legend, 83

Claud Johnson, 83, son of legendary Mississippi blues artist Robert Johnson, has died in Jackson, Miss.

His attorney, John Kitchens, said he was told by a son that Mr. Johnson died Tuesday.

Legend once had it that Robert Johnson, who wrote "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Crossroads Blues," sold his soul to the devil for his talent.

A court declared Mr. Johnson the musician's sole heir in 1998. Other relatives sued him over the photos in 2000. Mr. Johnson won a legal fight in 2014 to keep the profits from the only two known photographs of his father.

Mr. Johnson had worked several jobs over the years, including as barbecue restaurant owner, painter for an electric company, and gravel truck driver, Kitchens said.

"Even before he inherited his father's estate, he would buy lots of fruits and nuts and put them in baskets and deliver them to elderly homebound people in the community," Kitchens said. "The only real change after was that his list grew bigger and the baskets were larger." - AP