James Sonny Ford James, Delta Artist (1969)

As a child, James Thomas (1926-1993) earned his nickname by modeling Ford tractors out of the red "gumbo" clay found in the hills of Yazoo County. He later adopted the moniker as a blues performer playing the Mississippi Delta region. Thomas first learned guitar and sculpture from his uncle, and his art proved a valuable source of income, supplementing the wages he earned picking cotton and digging graves.