The following artists will be added to the Hall of Fame at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience on Saturday:

CHARLEY PRIDE

Country musician Charley Pride went from picking cotton in order to buy his first guitar at 14 to becoming one of the only three African-Americans to have ever been inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

A Sledge native, Pride was born into a family of poor sharecroppers. Growing up listening to country music because of his father’s love for the genre, Pride picked up his first guitar at age 14.

However, music wasn’t his only passion. Pride dreamed about playing professional baseball, and at the age of 16, he began playing for the Negro League’s Memphis Redsox.

After several years of playing minor league baseball and some unsuccessful tryouts, Pride realized his future was in music, and in 1966, he was signed to RCA Records.

Over the course of his career, he cranked out chart-topping hits such as “Roll On Mississippi” and “Is Anybody Going to San Antone,” winning him three Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Country Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 2000.

JIMMY BUFFETT

Multi-platinum artist Jimmy Buffett was born on the Mississippi Coast. He popularized the “Key West” genre, combining tropical gulf sounds to country-rock ‘n’ roll, drawing inspiration from his hometown of Pascagoula.

After Buffett graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi, he traveled to Nashville to pursue a musical career, which proved initially unsuccessful. From there, he moved to Key West, where his distinctive beach sound and identity began to form.

Soon after, he was signed to a label under his new persona and began producing party favorites like “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” and gained a devoted fan base that called themselves “Parrotheads.”

Buffett released his iconic “Margaritaville” track in his sixth album in 1977, paving the way for his future “Margaritaville” business empire, which includes a chain of clubs, a line of beach clothing, his own Margaritaville record label and several resorts and casinos.

He went on to record more than 50 albums, the majority of which have been deemed gold, platinum or multi-platinum records. Buffett has received a number of awards for his songs, including two Grammy Award nominations.

Buffett was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame for his laid-back music and lyrics, which is telling of the time he has spent in Mississippi.

HOWLIN’ WOLF

Howlin’ Wolf, born Chester A. Burnett, may have found fame in the Chicago music scene, but the blues legend hails from White Station, Mississippi, about 100 miles north of Meridian.

Burnett grew up listening to the blues through local performances from artists such as Charley Patton and Willie Brown.

A guitarist, harmonica player and blues singer, Burnett quickly became known for his signature howl and booming voice. He moved to Memphis in 1948 and formed a band before signing with Chess Records and heading to Chicago a few years later.

Some of his greatest hits include “I Ain’t Superstitious,” “Spoonful,” and Grammy Hall of Fame song recipient “Smokestack Lightning.”

He has been cited as a major influence on blues-rock musicians such as the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and is known as one of the greatest Chicago blues musicians of all time.

WILLIE MORRIS

Born in Jackson and raised in Yazoo City, famed American writer and editor Willie Morris gained recognition for his recollections of growing up in Mississippi.

Graduating as valedictorian of his class, Morris attended the University of Texas at Austin where he was selected as editor of the student newspaper. Morris went on to be selected as a Rhodes Scholar, and after his studies, he joined Harper’s Magazine in 1963 as an associate editor.

Four years later, Morris became the literary magazine’s youngest editor-in-chief at age 33. While at the magazine, Morris commissioned writers such as Larry King, William Styron and Norman Mailer.

Morris later published his autobiography, North Towards Home, which became a best-selling book, garnering him the Houghton Miffen Literary Fellowship Award for nonfiction.

After his time at Harper’s Magazine, Morris served as the writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi for a number of years where he cultivated new talent in Mississippi in the likes of John Grisham and Donna Tart.

My Dog Skip, The Courting of Marcus Dupree, and The Ghosts of Medgar Evers are just a few of the esteemed writer’s award-winning novels, all of which tell stories about the American South, the place he called home.

WILLIAM EGGLESTON

American photographer William Eggleston pioneered the movement for color photography to be considered a artistic medium in galleries, and his depictions of mundane life painted a picture of the American South.

Eggleston was born in Memphis but reared in the Mississippi Delta near Sumner. He attended a boarding school in Tennessee, where he began to realize that his interests lay outside of traditional Southern pursuits of fishing and hunting. His eye was drawn to the art of observation instead.

It wasn’t until he enrolled in Vanderbilt University, and later Delta State University and the University of Mississippi, that he found his calling in photography. Though Eggleston never received a college degree, he studied and practiced photography throughout his university education.

After Eggleston settled in Memphis, he began to experiment with color technology as a medium for fine art, something that had been previously reserved for commercial advertising.

His work has been described as capturing the complexities of the ordinary and went on to become highly decorated and exhibited at galleries around the globe.