By LYDIA BAKER - CRAWLEY
Mt. Pleasant News

“He’s just crazy over B.B. King,” Salem resident Jo Ann James said of her four-year old great-grandson, Spencer Hahn. “He said, ‘Nana, Nana, I got to meet B.B. King in person!’”

Hahn, who lives in Indianapolis, Ind., recently had his dreams of Delta Blues made a reality by the Make-A-Wish Foundation when he met B.B. King and “Lucille.”

James said the family never thought or said they thought Hahn would have a shorter life or would eventually die from his condition, but they did think, “We thought he was going to have problems.”

“When he was born, we didn’t know for about six months that he had this problem, but he couldn’t open his hand,” James said.
James said an MRI revealed that her great-grandson had experienced a stroke in-utero that had damaged 2/3 of the left side of his brain and left him with cerebral palsy.

“At the time, they said he’d never crawl, never walk, never talk,” James said. “He’s done all that.”

Hahn met B.B. King at his nightclub in Nashville, according to James.

“They got him into that nightclub, but they had to pull a few strings,” James said. “They took him right down front and a waiter brought him a guitar, right at the table, to play.”

He also got a personal tour of the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Miss. where two newspapers and a television station were on hand to record the event.

“He was touching ‘Lucille,’” James said. “They just went all out down there.”

According to James, “Lucille” was taken out of the vault especially for Hahn. The museum was also closed to the public during the visit.

“They took [“Lucille”] out of the vault,” James said.

According to James, Hahn began his love affair with B.B. King when he was just a baby.