June 3, 1967 –
Billie Joe McAllister jumps off the Tallahatchee Bridge on this date (It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty delta day,) according to the Bobbie Gentry song Ode To Billie Joe.
Gentry was familiar with the Tallahatchie Bridge since she was born and raised in Mississippi , where she grew up in a home without electricity. She learned to sing in church and her family got her a piano to nurture her musical talents. At age 13, she moved with her mother to Palm Springs, California, and in the ensuing years performed locally, taking the stage name Bobbie Gentry (her birth name: Roberta Lee Streeter – she chose the name after seeing the 1952 film, Ruby Gentry, starring Jennifer Jones and Charlton Heston).
The Haus of Dcaligari 