last month we visited the Milwaukee rep's production of mar and Rosetta the true story of two black gospel singers who pioneered the early sounds of rock and roll in the 1940s sister Rosetta Thorp was an established gospel singer she met Marie Knight in 1946 and they started recording together that sound became the foundation for what was to become known as rock and roll by the time Knight left the duo in the mid 1950s neither She nor Thor received proper credit for their contributions here at home but sister Rosetta did become famous in Europe she was the mother not the Godmother but the mother of rock and roll she created rock and roll with fusing gospel and blues together with that electric guitar and using a resonator she created a sound we had never heard before in this country or around the world because that's what brought so many people from across the pond to America like the Beatles and folks like that because of sister Rosetta Tharp she also helped start the careers of some of the early pioneers of rock and roll she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 members of her family who had migrated from the south and now live in Milwaukee are doing their part to ensure that her place in history does not get overlooked my name is Effie McGee and I am related to Aunt we call her aunt sister Rosetta as her niece she and my mom and the other siblings they had the same daddy um as a matter of fact my daddy my my granddaddy had three sets of children three three families so she was in from the second set let's do that [Music] again I used to do um little not skits but telling about the history of Aunt sister at doing black history at my church and then um I did it for so long and then um we did for the one of our family reunions we did we we honored her it was in her honor we had t-shirts uh and the program was about her so I'm Rosetta tharp's um great niece my grandfather father was one of her younger siblings um and as of lately I've just been making it a point I want to say I started I really got on it back in 2021 2020 that range and I wanted to bring awareness to her impact you know she was really unique as a guitar player she had a big influence on somebody like Chuck Barry who was one of the most influential guitar players in the world didn't r children R yes didn't it yes didn't it you know it did didn't it oh oh yes how it rain I said it rain children so I published an article self-published on medium called a black woman pioneered rock and roll sister Rosetta thp and the retrieval of her Legacy and the focus of my article was to just not only bring up her relevance and bring up what she has accomplished but to also leave a statement that she has family that's here that's constantly celebrating her and that's trying to push and keep her Legacy alive and so from there I went on to um one of our other cousins who helped us um we did an interview at a church um eie was there with me and um sister Rosetta also has two living siblings so um her brother who went on tour with her and spent um I want to say like a year living with her he was present for it so just kind of keeping the family as involved as possible and then from there I recently did a um I interviewed with this uh documentary um archives on four with the BBC um and it went amazing and you're obviously incredibly proud of sister Retta th I think she ultimately chose her career she chose the potential of whatever else is out there it seemed like one of those decisions sometimes religion can be a little hindering so who knows whatever push back she may have gotten socially to choose to divorce and leave the church and go this direction but I do think that she made the best decision she could in choosing herself and choosing her own future and [Music] Legacy is a clean [Music] train it was just again letting you know bringing that awareness to Sister Rosetta her Legacy and um just also kind of having a website having a point of contact where as these articles and as these opportunities are coming up just having a hub to keep proclaiming her Legacy sister Rosetta has made such an amazing impact on music culture she pioneered she created a rock and roll and just other various subg genres that came from there and so it's really important to keep that story alive keep her history alive and making sure that these future Generations um as time passes that they're also aware of her and her impact so I just think it's very important to keep that voice going for her I'm going to let it shine woo this little lot of mine I've got to let it shine This Little Light of Mine I'm going to let It Shine Shine Shine Let It Shine only let it shine