Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame musician and Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival co-founder Mrs. Selby Minner reminisces at D.C. Minner’s birth place in Rentiesville, OK on Tuesday, Apr. 6, 2015.
Minner recalled blues music history, her rise as a bass player, marriage with Blues legend D.C. Minner, settling into a rural community to create the Down Home Blues Club, and the area’s significance during and after the Civil War. This Blues venue and home is adjacent to the future site of the future Honey Springs Visitors’ Center, a multi-purpose community/visitor center and library that can educate people about one of thirteen remaining “All-Black Towns” that was populated by former slaves after the Civil War. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) opened bids for building the multi-purpose community/visitor center and library in Rentiesville, OK in January 2015. The center is a multi-million dollar partnership between four federal agencies, a state agency, McIntosh County, several local businesses, and a non-profit organization. The federal involvement includes the National Park Service, as well as all three agencies of USDA Rural Development (RD) Rural Business Service (RBS), Rural Utilities Service (RUS), and Rural Housing Service (RHS). For more information, please see www.usda.gov. USDA photo by Lance Cheung. Original public domain image from Flickr