On 26 September 1937, the day before John Hammond was to leave for Mississippi to take Bessie back to New York to record, she and her lover were driving on Route 61 just north of Clarksdale, Mississippi, when their car had an accident. They ran off the road and down a steep embankment created by the Yazoo flood plain. Bessie broke her ribs in the crash and as she lay by the side of the road a truck ran over her right arm, nearly severing it.
For many years the rumour circulated that her life could have been saved, if she had not been refused treatment at a "whites only" hospital in Clarksdale – 14 miles from the crash site. Much of the blame for this story must be attributed to John Hammond. He wrote an article in Downbeat magazine claiming Bessie died after being denied admission to a hospital because of her colour; Hammond later admitted his article was based on hearsay. Bessie was in fact treated by a white doctor, at the blacks only hospital on Sunflower Avenue in Clarksdale, but her injuries were too severe, and she had lost too much blood, and she died.
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