His parents were Bill and Annie Patton, but locally he was regarded as having been fathered by former slave Henderson Chatmon.

Several of Chatmon's children became popular Delta musicians, as solo performers and as members of groups including the Mississippi Sheiks.

[8] In 1897, his family moved 100 miles (160 km) north to the 10,000-acre (40 km2) Dockery Plantation, a cotton farm and sawmill near Ruleville, Mississippi.

Unlike most blues musicians of his time who were often itinerant performers, Patton played scheduled engagements at plantations and taverns.

[15] Patton settled in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, with his common-law wife and recording partner, Bertha Lee, in 1933.

[20] A memorial headstone was erected on his grave (the location of which was identified by the cemetery caretaker, C. Howard, who claimed to have been present at the burial), paid for by musician John Fogerty through the Mt.

Listening to interviews with H. C. Speir, who owned a furniture store in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1920s and was responsible for virtually all the recordings of early Delta blues, he clearly linked the music to its surroundings.

"[29] Patton's story was profiled in the accompanying book, American Epic: The First Time America Heard Itself.

[30] In May, 2021, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously inducted Patton into the 2021 class as an Early Influence.

The marker commemorates the lyrics of Patton's "Peavine Blues", which refer to the branch of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad which ran south from Dockery Plantation to Boyle.

The marker notes that riding on the railroad was a common theme of blues songs and was seen as a metaphor for travel and escape.