Awards and honors[edit]
In 1980, Townsend's album Mule was nominated in the first national Blues Music Awards in the Traditional Blues Album category.[9]
In 1982, his album St. Louis Blues (with his wife Vernell Townsend) was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the Traditional Blues Album category.[9]
Townsend was a recipient of a 1985 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[14]
In 1995 he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[15]
On February 10, 2008, Townsend was posthumously awarded a Grammy, his first, at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. The award, in the category Best Traditional Blues Album, was given for his performances on Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas,[16] released by the Blue Shoe Project. Townsend's son, Alonzo Townsend, accepted the award on his behalf.
On December 4, 2009, a marker commemorating Townsend was added to the Mississippi Blues Trail.[17]