Bo Diddley Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his distinctive rectangular guitar, with its unique booming, resonant, shimmering tones. Born in McComb, Mississippi, as Ellas Otha Bates, he was adopted and raised by his mother's cousin, Gussie McDaniel, whose surname he assumed. In 1934, the McDaniel family moved to the South Side of Chicago, where he dropped the Otha and became Ellas McDaniel. He was an active member of Chicago's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he studied the
Rhythm and Blues Foundation Motown artists from the 1940s through the 1970s. The Rhythm and Blues Foundation has also produced their Annual event the Pioneer Awards since the 1980s, then under the Direction of Suzan Jenkins, Executive Director. It also administered the Doc Pomus Financial Assistance Program, The Motown/Universal Music Group Fund, and the Gwendolyn B. Gordy Fuqua Fund providing emergency assistance to legendary aging artists. 2008 2006 2003 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1990/91 1989 Rhythm and Blues Foundation The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of