Submitted photoDan Del Fiorentino, music historian for NAMM, Rosi Johnson and Joe Lamond, president and CEO of NAMM.

Rosi Johnson, chief executive officer and president of Mississippi Music, Inc. and Mississippi Music Acceptance Corporation, was presented with the 2019 Believe in Music Award during the 2019 NAMM Show in Anaheim California.

The award recognizes Johnson’s dedication to the music industry, and specifically for her years of dedication to the NAMM Oral History program, according to a news release.  

Since it began in 2000, the program has interviewed more than 3,800 people in the music industry in the hopes of capturing and preserving its history. 

“Rosi has gone above and beyond to help support this special library collection,” Dan Del Fiorentino, Music Historian for NAMM said in the release “Her dedication has been felt in a lasting way as several of those she helped us interview are no longer with us, making those interviews now priceless. 

Johnson is president of Mississippi Music, Inc., a four-store, full-line retailer based in Hattiesburg and established in 1946 by her husband Dex’s parents, Mac and Jim Johnson. The company has full-line retail locations in Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Flowood and Meridian that also offer lessons and in-house repair. Additionally, Mississippi Music also has a sound installation division, Audio Services, that serves churches, schools and businesses.