Roebuck “Pops” Staples, the patriarch of the Staple Singers, was born in Winona, Mississippi on December 28th in 1914. He was a contemporary of Mississippi blues singers like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, and learned guitar from the likes of Charley Patton, but unlike those men, Staples went on the represent the best of Gospel music over the course of a decades-long career. In the 1960s and 70s with The Staple Singers, Pops’ saw the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 more than once, bringing a positive message of love to millions.