MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Steve Cropper, the lean, soulful guitarist and songwriter who helped anchor the celebrated Memphis backing band Booker T. and the M.G.’s at Stax Records and co-wrote the classics “Green Onions,” "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" and "In the Midnight Hour," died Wednesday. He was 84.

Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, said Mr. Cropper’s family told her that Mr. Cropper died in Nashville, Tenn. The foundation operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, located at the site of the former Stax Records, where Cropper worked for years.

A cause of death was not immediately known. Longtime associate Eddie Gore said he was with Mr. Cropper on Tuesday at a rehabilitation facility in Nashville, where Mr. Cropper had been after a rec

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