The jazz and bebop composer and pianist Thelonious Sphere Monk (Jr.) was born October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and died of a stroke on February 17, 1982. He was treated for mental illness in his later years, although no official diagnosis was made, and he possibly was misdiagnosed and given incorrect medicines.

His wife Nellie Smith gave birth to two children: T.S. Monk III, nicknamed Toot, and daughter Barbara, nicknamed Boo-Boo, who died of cancer at age 31. Toot went on to become a jazz drummer.

In his honor, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz was established in 1982. Monk was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, a special Pulitzer Prize in 2006, and was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009. His talent and influence on jazz is strong; in almost every "top 10 jazz musicians" lists, his name is included.