Jimi Hendrix Received a Huge Honor Years After His Death That Had Nothing to Do With Music

Jimi Hendrix proved himself as a phenomenal guitarist during his music career. As soon as he picked up his first guitar, he was practically inseparable from the instrument. He penned some of the greatest classic rock songs, but Hendrix received a huge honor years after his death that had nothing to do with music.

Jimi Hendrix created a legendary career in a short time

Washington state native Jimi Hendrix began his music career by backing artists such as Little Richard and The Isley Brothers. Yet fans in England were more receptive to his brand of rock ‘n’ roll and embraced him first.

Yet his undeniable talent soon won over American music lovers. Hendrix broke through in the United States with an unforgettable performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. That was the show where he lit his guitar on fire and seemed to summon the flames with his wiggling fingers. 

Hendrix’s first two solo albums dropped in the back half of 1967. The second, Axis: Bold as Love, hit shelves in December 1967. Hendrix put out Electric Ladyland in October 1968, played one of the last sets at Woodstock in 1969, and had the biggest concert of his life saved by a member of Pink Floyd in 1970.

The guitarist gave actor Leonard Nimoy a life highlight with a 1968 rendezvous, but Hendrix earned a much bigger honor decades after his death, and it had nothing to do with music.

Hendrix received an honor that had nothing to do with music when had a Seattle-area post office named after him

Hendrix and his Experience bandmates, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, unsurprisingly entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. (Interestingly, The Isley Brothers joined the Hall the same year).

But Hendrix received a huge honor that had nothing to do with music when the United States Postal Service named a post office after him. The USPS renamed its Renton, Wash., location the James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix Post Office in 2018. A congressman sponsored a bill to rename the building, and both of Washington’s U.S. senators backed it, the Seattle Times reported. 

Renton lies about 20 miles southeast of Hendrix’s hometown of Seattle, but the post office stands less than a mile from the Jimi Hendrix Memorial in the Greenwood Memorial Park cemetery, where the guitar hero is buried, per the Times.

The Jimi Hendrix Post Office, at 4301 NE 4th St. in Renton, remains open in 2022, per the USPS website. 

The United States Postal Service celebrated Hendrix in another way after his death

Hendrix’s death at the age of 27 robbed the world of an incredible talent. His career as one of the most popular guitarists in the world didn’t last long, but his legacy is alive and well.

Hendrix received a huge honor years after he died when he had a post office named after him, but that wasn’t the first time the USPS celebrated the influential performer. The Postal Service issued a colorful stamp in his honor in 2014. Fittingly, the stamp’s dedication and debut happened at the SXSW music and arts festival in Austin, Texas, that year.

Interestingly, Hendrix’s grandmother, Zenora “Nora” Rose Moore Hendrix, appeared on a Canadian stamp in 2014. Hendrix’s Twitter account shared a picture of the stamp on her birthday in 2015.

Jimi Hendrix received several huge honors after his death, but having a post office named after him had nothing to do with his music.

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