continued on the 2003 album Mississippi to Mali by Corey Harris. The album was dedicated to Turner, who died a week before he was scheduled to record for the album. His granddaughter and protégé Shardé Thomas, then 12 years old, filled in for the recording sessions. Othar Turner died in Gravel Springs, Mississippi, aged 95, on February 27, 2003. His daughter, Bernice Turner Pratcher, who had been living in a nursing home because of terminal breast cancer, died the same day, aged 48. A joint funeral service was held on March 4, 2003, in Como, Mississippi. A procession leading to the cemetery was led by the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, with his granddaughter Shardé Thomas, then 13 years old, at its head playing the fife. Awards and honors Turner was a recipient of a 1992 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. He was nominated for two Blues Music Awards (formerly the W.C. Handy Blues Awards) in 2000 and 2003 in the Blues Instrumentalist: Other category. In 2009, Turner was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in Como. Cultural influence Maurice Watkins portrayed a fife—playing character named Othar in the 2004 Coen brothers' film The Ladykillers. Films Gravel Springs Fife and Drum (1971). Filmed by Bill Ferris, recorded by David Evans, and edited by Judy Peiser. HOMEPLACE (1975) Filmed in 1972 by Michael Ford, Audio by James Forward. Produced by Yellow Cat Productions. Washington, DC. References Further reading Othar Turner, Cane Fife Maker in: Music of Othar Turner is Worth "Hollerin'" About in: Othar Turner in: Othar Turner & The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band in: External links Otha Turner and the Afrossippi Allstars at Epitonic.com Fife players 1907 births 2003 deaths National Heritage Fellowship winners 20th-century American musicians Farmers from Mississippi Blues musicians from Mississippi People from Canton, Mississippi Birdman Records artists Mississippi Blues Trail 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American people 20th-century flautists