Did a Bourbon Family Murder Inspire the Song “Careless Love”?

 

Bessie Smith had the first hit with "Careless Love" in 1925.

The tremendous success of Old Crow, the first modern bourbon, produced several fortunes in the decades before Prohibition. Few profited more than the Berry family. Hiram Berry joined the firm after the deaths of founders James Crow and Oscar Pepper. He was succeeded by his eldest son, George. 

Both men were prominent members of Kentucky’s bourbon aristocracy. George Berry may have been the wealthiest person in the state. He was married to Mary Bush, from a prominent Louisville family. As such, Mary’s younger sister, Cornelia, was George Berry’s sister-in-law. Her sensational murder in Louisville in 1895 is believed to have inspired the classic blues song, “Careless Love,” according to W. C. Handy, to whom it is attributed. 

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