[4] With aspirations to earn a living with his guitar, Townsend also worked as an auto mechanic, a shoe shiner, a hotel manager, and a salesman.

[2] By the late 1920s he had begun touring and recording with the pianist Walter Davis and had acquired the nickname Mule, because he was sturdy in both physique and character.

[7] By the mid-1950s, the popularity of the St. Louis style of blues had begun to wane in the United States, so Townsend worked in Europe where he felt his music was more appreciated.

[2] Articulate and self-aware, with an excellent memory, Townsend gave many invaluable interviews to blues enthusiasts and scholars.

[9] Thirty years later, Bill Greensmith edited thirty hours of taped interviews with Henry to produce a full autobiography, A Blues Life, giving a vivid history of the blues scene in St Louis and East St Louis in its prime.

[11] Townsend died on September 24, 2006, at the age of 96, at St. Mary's Ozaukee Hospital, in Mequon, Wisconsin, just hours after having been the first person to be presented with a "key" in Grafton's Paramount Plaza Walk of Fame.

—Tony Russell, The Guardian Having served as a private in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, Townsend was interred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on October 2, 2006.