Theresa McLaurin Needham (April 17, 1912 – October 16, 1992) was born in the town of Meridian, Mississippi, and moved to Chicago in the mid-1940s. On the city's South Side, she opened a tavern in the basement of a building on South Indiana Avenue in December 1949, serving drinks while providing a small stage where Chicago's blues musicians could perform. At the time, Chicago blues was at its peak. The city's musicians were bursting with talent, and Theresa's Lounge was ready to welcome them, eventually becoming the world's most famous and historically significant blues club. Before long, the young Junior Wells and Buddy Guy became the house band, helping define the distinctive sound and style of Chicago's South Side blues. Listing every blues artist who performed at Theresa's Lounge during its thirty-seven years of live music (1949–1986) would be impossible. Legends such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, James Cotton, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, Earl Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Hound Dog Taylor, Mary Lane, Koko Taylor, Sunnyland Slim, and countless others all helped write the club's remarkable history. In 1983, the club was forced to leave its original location, and just three years later, it closed its doors for good. Theresa McLaurin Needham passed away six years later. In recognition of her extraordinary contribution to the blues, she was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001.