Notable Births
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*Luther Allison, a blues guitarist called the "Bruce Springsteen of the blues", was born in Widener, Arkansas (August 17).
Luther Allison (b. August 17, 1939, Widener, Arkansas – d. August 12, 1997, Madison, Wisconsin) moved with his family to Chicago in 1951. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he began hanging around outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. He played with Howlin' Wolf's band and backed James Cotton.
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*John Amos, an actor best known for his role as James Evans, Sr., on the 1970s television series Good Times, was born in Newark, New Jersey (December 27).
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*Sonny Fortune, a jazz alto saxophonist and flautist, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (May 19).
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*Eddie Kendricks, a lead singer for The Temptations singing group best known for his lead vocals on the hit "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me), was born in Union Springs, Alabama.
Edward James Kendrick (b. December 17, 1939, Union Springs, Alabama – d. October 5, 1992, Birmingham, Alabama), best known by the stage name Eddie Kendricks, was a singer and songwriter. Noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style, Kendricks co-founded the Motown singing group The Temptations, and was one of their lead singers from 1960 until 1971. His was the lead voice on such famous songs as "The Way You Do The Things You Do", "Get Ready", and "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)". As a solo artist, Kendricks recorded several hits of his own during the 1970s, including the number-one single "Keep On Truckin'".
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*Bertram Lee, the first African American to hold a majority stake in a major-league United States sports franchise (the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets), was born in Lynchburg, Virginia (January 21).
Bertram M. Lee, Sr. (b. January 21, 1939, Lynchburg, Virginia - d. October 7, 2003, Washington, D. C.) made history in 1989 when he became the first African American to hold a majority stake in a major-league United States sports franchise. Lee and his partners, who included the late United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, acquired the National Basketball Association’s Denver Nuggets team for $65 million.
Lee was born on January 21, 1939, in Lynchburg, Virginia, and was raised in a public-housing project. His father, William, was a teacher, and while his family was not an affluent one, neither were they poor. After finishing high school, Lee moved to Naperville, Illinois, to study at North Central College, and after earning his degree in 1961 he took a civil-service job with the city of Chicago. A stint in the United States Army between 1963 and 1965 interrupted that career, but he returned to City Hall to hold various posts in the administration of longtime Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.
In 1967, Lee was hired as the executive director of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of Greater Boston, which provided local African-American communities with empowerment aid. He and his wife Edith, whom he had met in college, soon moved to Boston with their infant daughter; a second daughter was born there. For a time, Lee’s fortunes thrived: he had a management consulting firm, and bought what was then the largest black-owned printing company in the United States, Geneva Printing and Publishing. With two investment partners, he acquired the business for $250,000, and though it won lucrative new contracts, it proved a steady money-loser, and Lee was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1975. He had neglected his management-consulting firm, and a magazine venture in Chicago in which he had a stake also tanked when paper costs skyrocketed.
Despite the setbacks, Lee had already planted the seeds for what would become one of the most profitable business ventures in his career. In 1969, he formed a Boston-area media group to challenge ownership of one of the city’s television stations, the ABC affiliate WNAC-TV. He and a group of fellow investors, calling themselves the Dudley Station Corporation, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which grants operating licenses to radio and television stations, to review the track record of the current owner, RKO, which they claimed had failed to meet its obligations to the community, according to the terms of its FCC license.
The Dudley Station group, for which Lee served as president, was actually one of two groups that was challenging the WNAC license. In 1978, Lee’s group merged with the other grass-roots organization to form the New England Television Corporation (NETV). A year later, the FCC revoked the RKO license for Boston’s Channel 7, and NETV was able to buy the affiliate in 1982. In the interim, the station had switched alliances and become a CBS affiliate. Lee and the other investors had spent 13 years in the courts, and were saddled with $5 million in legal fees in the end. They paid $22 million to buy the station, which was valued at $60 to $150 million. Lee, a senior vice president of the media group, had made an initial investment of $10,000.
The station’s changeover to new ownership in May of 1982—heralded with new call letters, WNEV-TV—was an historic first. The transaction represented the largest ownership and management interest of blacks and other minority groups of any major American television station.
Lee sold his stake in the station in 1986, cashing out with what was estimated to be a $5 million to $13 million profit. By then he was running BML Associates, Inc., which bore his initials. This Boston holding company had stakes in six enterprises; by 1988 it had posted $30 million in sales and earned a spot on Black Enterprise magazine’s list of leading African American-owned businesses. It owned radio stations in Utah and Nebraska under the Albimar Management name, operated pay telephones as Kellee Communications Group, and acquired a stake in an Atlanta hair-care company in early 1989. Lee was also involved in the Shawmut National Bank as a director, and chaired the Boston Bank of Commerce.
Lee had built up a network of political connections over the years that brought him to the attention of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who tapped him to serve as finance co-chair for his campaign to win the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination; he also worked for Jackson’s 1988 bid. Lee was friendly with a rising star in Democrat National Committee circles, Ron Brown, and brought the future U.S. Secretary of Commerce on board when he began a bid for another historic first: to purchase a major-league sports team. In 1986, Lee tentatively explored the possibility of acquiring the New England Patriots football team, and then moved from football to baseball when the Baltimore Orioles seemed ready to change hands. The football and baseball leagues, however, were long-entrenched operations, and such local franchises were prohibitively expensive to own and operate. Lee then looked into the National Basketball Association (NBA), which dated back to the 1950s and was thus considered a relative upstart in professional sports.
In 1988, Lee and his group lost out on a bid for the San Antonio Spurs when their $50 million tender offer proved too low. However, with some help from an encouraging new NBA commissioner, David Stern, Lee and his partners—which included tennis great Arthur Ashe as well as Brown—bought the Denver Nuggets for $65 million.
The announcement was made in a two-hour press conference at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in July of 1989. The Nuggets were the first among the 27 NBA teams to be owned by a black majority interest ownership group, even though about 70 percent of the NBA’s player roster at that time was African American.
Lee was long active in the TransAfrica Forum, an anti-apartheid group, and in 1990 helped organize Nelson Mandela’s visit to Boston in 1990 as part of the recently freed South African leader’s historic North American fundraising tour. He still had ties in Chicago, however, and in the late 1980s had moved back there after his wife died. His younger daughter wanted to attend high school in same city as her late mother and, for Lee, family took precedence over business for him.
Lee’s ownership stake in the Nuggets ended in 1991, when he failed to meet a $5 million capital call. After moving to Washington, D.C., around 1994, he continued his involvement with media ownership, and served as an interim board member for the progressive Pacifica Radio network. But his financial troubles returned in the late 1990s, compounded by lingering health problems from a parasite he picked up while traveling in South Africa.
Lee’s name was touted as a potential investor in a 1999 effort to bring a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise to Washington, but MLB executives had notoriously tough standards for potential owners, and the deal disintegrated.
Bertram M. Lee died on October 7, 2003 in Washington D. C. from a brain aneurysm.
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*Cleavon Little, a stage, film and television actor best known for his role as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 classic comedy Blazing Saddles, was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma (June 1).
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*Luther Allison, a blues guitarist called the "Bruce Springsteen of the blues", was born in Widener, Arkansas (August 17).
Luther Allison (b. August 17, 1939, Widener, Arkansas – d. August 12, 1997, Madison, Wisconsin) moved with his family to Chicago in 1951. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he began hanging around outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. He played with Howlin' Wolf's band and backed James Cotton.
Allison's big break came in 1957, when Howlin' Wolf invited him to the stage. Freddie King took Allison under his wing, and after King got a record deal, Allison took over his gig in the house band of a club on Chicago's West Side. He worked the club circuit in the late 1950s and early 1960s and recorded his first single in 1965. He signed a recording contract with Delmark Records in 1967 and released his debut album, Love Me Mama, the following year. He performed a well-received set at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival and as a result was asked to perform there in each of the next three years. He toured nationwide. In 1972, he signed with Motown Records, one of the few blues artists on that label. In the mid-1970s he toured Europe. He moved to France in 1977.
Allison was known for his powerful concert performances, lengthy soulful guitar solos and crowd walking with his Gibson Les Paul. He lived briefly during this period in Peoria, Illinois, where he signed with Rumble Records, releasing two live recordings, "Gonna Be a Live One in Here Tonight", produced by Bill Knight, and "Power Wire Blues", produced by George Faber and Jeffrey P. Hess. Allison played the bar circuit in the United States during this period and spent eight months of the year in Europe at high-profile venues, including the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1992, he performed with the French rock and roll star Johnny Hallyday in 18 shows in Paris, also playing during the intermission.
Allison's manager and European agent, Thomas Ruf, founded Ruf Records in 1994. Signing with Ruf Records, Allison launched a comeback in association with Alligator Records.
Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer convinced Allison to return to the United States. The album Soul Fixin' Man was recorded and released in 1994, and Allison toured the United States and Canada. He won four W. C. Handy Awards in 1994. With the James Solberg Band backing him, nonstop touring and the release of Blue Streak (featuring the song "Cherry Red Wine"), Allison earned more Handy Awards and gained wider recognition. He won several Living Blues Awards and was featured on the covers of blues publications.
Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer convinced Allison to return to the United States. The album Soul Fixin' Man was recorded and released in 1994, and Allison toured the United States and Canada. He won four W. C. Handy Awards in 1994. With the James Solberg Band backing him, nonstop touring and the release of Blue Streak (featuring the song "Cherry Red Wine"), Allison earned more Handy Awards and gained wider recognition. He won several Living Blues Awards and was featured on the covers of blues publications.
During his tour in the summer of 1997, Allison checked into a hospital for dizziness and loss of coordination. It was discovered that he had a tumor on his lung that had metastasized to his brain. In and out of a coma, Allison died on August 12, 1997, five days before his 58th birthday, in Madison, Wisconsin. His album Reckless had just been released.
Allison was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times called him "the Bruce Springsteen of the blues".
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*John Amos, an actor best known for his role as James Evans, Sr., on the 1970s television series Good Times, was born in Newark, New Jersey (December 27).
John A. Amos, Jr. (b. December 27, 1939, Newark, New Jersey) had a long career in television. Indeed, John Amos holds the distinction of receiving three TV Land Awards, taking home trophies for his roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Good Times, and the television miniseries Roots, for which he also received an Emmy nomination. Amos' television work also included the recurring role in as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace on The West Wing and the role as the father of Will Smith's character's girlfriend, Lisa Wilkes, in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Amos also appeared on Broadway and in numerous films in a career that spanned four decades. He received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and NAACP Image Award.
John A. Amos, Jr. was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Annabelle P. and John A. Amos, Sr., who was an auto mechanic. He graduated from East Orange (New Jersey) High School in 1958. He enrolled at Long Beach City College and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in sociology. Amos also played on the Colorado State Rams football team. Amos spent the next three years pursuing a professional football career with limited success.
After the end of his football career, Amos took up acting. Amos is best known for playing characters Gordy Howard (the weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show) from 1970 until 1973 and James Evans, Sr., the husband of Florida Evans, appearing three times on the sitcom Maude before continuing the role in 61 episodes of Good Times from 1974 to 1976. While playing a hard-working middle-aged father of three on the show, in real life Amos was only 34 when the show began, only eight years older than the actor who played his oldest son (Jimmie Walker) and 19 years younger than his screen wife (Esther Rolle). Amos, much like series' co-star Rolle, wanted to portray a positive image of an African American family, struggling against the odds in the ghetto of Chicago, but saw the premise slighted by lower comedy, and expressed dissatisfaction. Amos was fired from the show after the third season ended because he had issues with Norman Lear and the writers of the show in regards to Jimmie Walker's character JJ. His character, James Evans, subsequently, was written to have died in a car accident in the first episode of the fourth season, and the series continued for three more seasons without him.
As for his film career, Amos was featured in Disney's The World's Greatest Athlete (1973) with Tim Conway and Jan-Michael Vincent, and also starred as Kansas City Mack in Let's Do It Again (1975) with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. His other film appearances included Vanishing (1971), The President's Plane Is Missing (1973), Touched by Love (1980), The Beastmaster (1982), Dance of the Dwarfs (1983), American Flyers (1985), Coming to America (1988), Lock Up (1989), Two Evil Eyes (1989), Die Hard 2 (1990), and Ricochet (1991). He appeared in the 1995 film For Better or Worse and played a police officer in The Players Club (1998). He played Uncle Virgil in My Baby's Daddy (2004), and starred as Jud in Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006). In 2012, Amos had a role in the movie Madea's Witness Protection, as Jake's father. He also appeared in Ice Cube's and Dr. Dre's video for Natural Born Killaz in 1994.
John A. Amos, Jr. was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Annabelle P. and John A. Amos, Sr., who was an auto mechanic. He graduated from East Orange (New Jersey) High School in 1958. He enrolled at Long Beach City College and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in sociology. Amos also played on the Colorado State Rams football team. Amos spent the next three years pursuing a professional football career with limited success.
After the end of his football career, Amos took up acting. Amos is best known for playing characters Gordy Howard (the weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show) from 1970 until 1973 and James Evans, Sr., the husband of Florida Evans, appearing three times on the sitcom Maude before continuing the role in 61 episodes of Good Times from 1974 to 1976. While playing a hard-working middle-aged father of three on the show, in real life Amos was only 34 when the show began, only eight years older than the actor who played his oldest son (Jimmie Walker) and 19 years younger than his screen wife (Esther Rolle). Amos, much like series' co-star Rolle, wanted to portray a positive image of an African American family, struggling against the odds in the ghetto of Chicago, but saw the premise slighted by lower comedy, and expressed dissatisfaction. Amos was fired from the show after the third season ended because he had issues with Norman Lear and the writers of the show in regards to Jimmie Walker's character JJ. His character, James Evans, subsequently, was written to have died in a car accident in the first episode of the fourth season, and the series continued for three more seasons without him.
As for his film career, Amos was featured in Disney's The World's Greatest Athlete (1973) with Tim Conway and Jan-Michael Vincent, and also starred as Kansas City Mack in Let's Do It Again (1975) with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. His other film appearances included Vanishing (1971), The President's Plane Is Missing (1973), Touched by Love (1980), The Beastmaster (1982), Dance of the Dwarfs (1983), American Flyers (1985), Coming to America (1988), Lock Up (1989), Two Evil Eyes (1989), Die Hard 2 (1990), and Ricochet (1991). He appeared in the 1995 film For Better or Worse and played a police officer in The Players Club (1998). He played Uncle Virgil in My Baby's Daddy (2004), and starred as Jud in Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006). In 2012, Amos had a role in the movie Madea's Witness Protection, as Jake's father. He also appeared in Ice Cube's and Dr. Dre's video for Natural Born Killaz in 1994.
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*Toni Cade Bambara, author of the novels Gorilla and The Salt Eaters, was born in New York City, New York (March 25).
Toni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade (b. March 25, 1939 – d. December 9, 1995), was an author, documentary film-maker, social activist and college professor.
Toni Cade Bambara was born in New York City to parents Walter and Helen (Henderson) Cade. She grew up in Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant (Brooklyn), Queens and New Jersey. In 1970, she changed her name to include the name of a West African ethnic group, Bambara.
Bambara graduated from Queens College with a B. A. in Theater Arts/English Literature in 1959, then studied mime at the Ecole de Mime Etienne Decroux in Paris, France. She also became interested in dance before completing her master's degree in American studies at City College, New York (from 1962), while serving as program director of Colony Settlement House in Brooklyn. She also worked for New York social services and as a recreation director in the psychiatric ward of Metropolitan hospital.
From 1965 to 1969 she was with City College's Search for Education, Elevation, Knowledge-program. She taught English, published material and worked with SEEK's black theatre group. She was made assistant professor of English at Rutgers University's new Livingston College in 1969, was visiting professor in Afro-American Studies at Emory University and at Atlanta University (1977), where she also taught at the School of Social Work (until 1979). She was writer-in-residence at Neighborhood Arts Center (1975–79), at Stephens College at Columbia, Missouri (1976) and at Atlanta's Spelman College (1978–79). From 1986, she taught film-script writing at Louis Massiah's Scribe Video Center in Philadelphis.
From 1965 to 1969 she was with City College's Search for Education, Elevation, Knowledge-program. She taught English, published material and worked with SEEK's black theatre group. She was made assistant professor of English at Rutgers University's new Livingston College in 1969, was visiting professor in Afro-American Studies at Emory University and at Atlanta University (1977), where she also taught at the School of Social Work (until 1979). She was writer-in-residence at Neighborhood Arts Center (1975–79), at Stephens College at Columbia, Missouri (1976) and at Atlanta's Spelman College (1978–79). From 1986, she taught film-script writing at Louis Massiah's Scribe Video Center in Philadelphis.
Bambara participated in several community and activist organizations, and her work was influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements of the 1960s. She went on propaganda trips to Cuba in 1973 and to Vietnam in 1975. She moved to Atlanta, Georgia, with her daughter, Karma Bene, and became a founding member of the Southern Collective of African-American Writers.
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*Walt Bellamy, a Hall of Fame basketball player, was born in New Bern, North Carolina (July 24).
Walt Bellamy (Walter Jones Bellamy), (b. July 24, 1939, New Bern, North Carolina —d. November 2, 2013, Atlanta, Georgia) was a leading scorer and rebounder for five National Basketball Association (NBA) teams (the Chicago Packers [renamed the Chicago Zephyrs in 1962 and the Baltimore Bullets in 1963] 1961–65, the New York Knicks 1965–68, the Detroit Pistons 1968–70, the Atlanta Hawks 1970–74, and the New Orleans Jazz 1974) with a per-game average of 20.1 points and 13.7 rebounds when he retired in 1974. Bellamy was also one of only seven players to achieve career highs exceeding 20,000 points and 14,000 rebounds. He was a star (1958–61) at Indiana University, where he set records for most rebounds in a season (649) and in a game (33) and was twice named All-American. Bellamy played on the gold-medal-winning United States Olympic basketball team at the 1960 Games in Rome before being picked first in the NBA draft (1961) by the Chicago Packers. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1962 and was an All-Star in his first four NBA seasons. Bellamy was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
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*Gary U.S. Bonds, a rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer known for his classic hits "New Orleans" and "Quarter to Three", was born in Jacksonville, Florida (June 6).
Gary U.S. Bonds (b. Gary Levone Anderson, June 6, 1939, Jacksonville, Florida ) lived in Norfolk, Virginia, in the 1950s when he began singing publicly in church and with a group called the Turks. He joined record producer Frank Guida's small Legrand Records label where Guida chose Anderson's stage name, U.S. Bonds, in hopes that it would be confused with a public service announcement advertising the sale of government bonds and thereby garner more radio airplay. His first three singles and first album, Dance 'Til Quarter to Three, were released under the U.S. Bonds name, but people assumed it was the name of a group. To avoid confusion, subsequent releases, including his second album Twist Up Calypso, were made under the name Gary (U.S.) Bonds. The parentheses were discarded in the 1970s.
*Ralph Boston, the 1960 Rome Olympics long jump gold medalist, was born in Laurel, Mississippi.
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*Lou Brock, a Major League Baseball player whose career 938 stolen bases set a record and served as the foundation for his induction into Baseball Hall of Fame, was born in El Dorado, Arkansas.
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*Barbara Chase-Riboud, the author of Sally Hemings a novel about the slave who is believed to have had an intimate relationship with Thomas Jefferson, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (June 26).
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*Alyce Griffin Clarke, the first African American woman member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi (July 3).
Alyce Griffin Clarke (b. July 3, 1939, Yazoo City, Mississippi) was appointed to fill the term of Fred Banks, who had been appointed a circuit judge. Born in Yazoo City, Clarke was educated in Mississippi schools, taking four M. S. degrees, each at a different school. She worked as a public school teacher and as a nutritionist.
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*Ernie Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, was born in New Salem, Pennsylvania.
Herman Thomas "Tommy" Davis, Jr. (b. March 21, 1939, Brooklyn, New York) was a Major League Baseball left fielder and third baseman. He played from 1959–76 for ten different teams, but he is best known for his years with the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was a two-time National League batting champion.
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*Marion Wright Edelman, an activist for the rights of children and the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, was born in Bennettsville, South Carolina.
Marian Wright Edelman (b. June 6, 1939, Bennettsville, South Carolina) was an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. She was also the president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.
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*Walt Bellamy, a Hall of Fame basketball player, was born in New Bern, North Carolina (July 24).
Walt Bellamy (Walter Jones Bellamy), (b. July 24, 1939, New Bern, North Carolina —d. November 2, 2013, Atlanta, Georgia) was a leading scorer and rebounder for five National Basketball Association (NBA) teams (the Chicago Packers [renamed the Chicago Zephyrs in 1962 and the Baltimore Bullets in 1963] 1961–65, the New York Knicks 1965–68, the Detroit Pistons 1968–70, the Atlanta Hawks 1970–74, and the New Orleans Jazz 1974) with a per-game average of 20.1 points and 13.7 rebounds when he retired in 1974. Bellamy was also one of only seven players to achieve career highs exceeding 20,000 points and 14,000 rebounds. He was a star (1958–61) at Indiana University, where he set records for most rebounds in a season (649) and in a game (33) and was twice named All-American. Bellamy played on the gold-medal-winning United States Olympic basketball team at the 1960 Games in Rome before being picked first in the NBA draft (1961) by the Chicago Packers. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1962 and was an All-Star in his first four NBA seasons. Bellamy was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
Bellamy was the starting center on the gold medal-winning American basketball team at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Ten of the twelve college players on the undefeated American squad went on to play professionally in the NBA, including fellow Big Ten player Teryy Dischinger and fellow future Hall-of-Famers Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, and Jerry Lucas.
Bellamy had a stellar 14-year career in the NBA, and was the NBA first overall draft pick in 1961. Bellamy was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1962 after having arguably one of the three greatest rookie seasons in NBA history (along with Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson). His 31.6 points per game average that season is second best all-time for a rookie to Wilt Chamberlain's 37.6, and the 19 rebounds per game he averaged that season is third best all-time for a rookie (to Chamberlain's 27 and Bill Russell's 19.6).
Bellamy also led the NBA in field goal percentage in his rookie season, and had a 23-point, 17-rebound performance in the 1962 NBA All-Star Game. Bellamy played with the Chicago Packers, which became the Baltimore Bullets, for his first four seasons before he was traded to the New York Knicks for Johnny Green, Johnny Egan, Jim Barnes and cash a few games into the 1965-66 season.
Due to trades to teams with offset game schedules during the 1968–69 season when he was traded (with Howard Komives) from the Knicks to the Detroit Pistons for Dave DeBusschere, Bellamy set a still-standing record for NBA games played in a single regular season with 88 (He played 35 games with the Knicks, 53 with the Pistons). He later played for several seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, and finished his career with the New Orleans Jazz.
Bellamy ended his NBA career with 20,941 points and 14,241 rebounds, and is a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, being inducted in 1993 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the 1960 United States Men's Olympic basketball team.
After his retirement from the NBA, Bellamy was active with the NAACP, the Urban League and the YMCA in the Atlanta area.
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*Gary U.S. Bonds, a rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer known for his classic hits "New Orleans" and "Quarter to Three", was born in Jacksonville, Florida (June 6).
Gary U.S. Bonds (b. Gary Levone Anderson, June 6, 1939, Jacksonville, Florida ) lived in Norfolk, Virginia, in the 1950s when he began singing publicly in church and with a group called the Turks. He joined record producer Frank Guida's small Legrand Records label where Guida chose Anderson's stage name, U.S. Bonds, in hopes that it would be confused with a public service announcement advertising the sale of government bonds and thereby garner more radio airplay. His first three singles and first album, Dance 'Til Quarter to Three, were released under the U.S. Bonds name, but people assumed it was the name of a group. To avoid confusion, subsequent releases, including his second album Twist Up Calypso, were made under the name Gary (U.S.) Bonds. The parentheses were discarded in the 1970s.
Bonds' first hit was the song "New Orleans" (#6), which was followed by "Not Me", a flop for Bonds but later a hit for the Orlons, and then by his only number one hit, "Quarter to Three" in June 1961. "Quarter To Three" sold one million records, earning a gold disc. Subsequent hits, under his modified name, included "School Is Out" (#5), "Dear Lady Twist" (#9), "School Is In" (#28) and "Twist, Twist, Señora" (#10) in the early 1960s. In a 1963 tour of Europe, he headlined above the Beatles. His hits featured solos by the saxophonist Gene Barge.
"Quarter to Three" appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.
In the early 1980s, Bonds had a career resurgence with two albums Dedication and On the Line, collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, and the E Street Band, and hits including "This Little Girl" (his comeback hit in 1981, which reached #11 on the pop chart on Billboard and #5 on the mainstream rock chart), "Jolé Blon" and "Out of Work". While Bonds is mostly known for achievements within rhythm and blues and rock and roll, he often transcended these genres, e.g., his song "She's All I Got", co-written by Jerry Williams, Jr. "(better known as Swamp Dogg), was nominated for the Country Music Association's "Song of the Year" in 1972 when it was a big hit for Johnny Paycheck (Freddie North also charted his only pop hit with a soul cover of the same song). Bonds is also a 1997 honoree of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.
Bonds guest appeared in Blues Brothers 2000 in 1998 as part of a rival blues supergroup the Louisiana Gator Boys.
Bonds guest appeared in Blues Brothers 2000 in 1998 as part of a rival blues supergroup the Louisiana Gator Boys.
Bonds released an album in 2004 called Back in 20, the title referencing his repeated sporadic pop-ups of popularity (his first hits were in the 1960s, then again in the 1980s, and now another significant album in the early 2000s, each 20-odd years apart). The album features guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny. Bonds was also inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.
In 2009, Bonds released a new album Let Them Talk and toured the United Kingdom as a special guest of Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. Most recently, in 2010, Bonds contributed duet vocals on the song "Umbrella in My Drink" on Southside Johnny's album Pills and Ammo.
******Ralph Boston, the 1960 Rome Olympics long jump gold medalist, was born in Laurel, Mississippi.
Ralph Harold Boston (b. May 9, 1939, Laurel, Mississippi) was an all around track and field competitor. He is best remembered for the long jump, in which he was the first person to break the 27 feet (8.2 m) barrier.
Boston was born in Laurel, Mississippi. As a student at Tennessee State University, he won the 1960 National Collegiate Athletic Association title in the long jump. In August of the same year, he broke the world record in the event, held by Jesse Owens for 25 years, at the Mt. SAC Relays. Already the world record holder, he improved the mark past 27 feet, jumping 27' 1/2" at the Modesto Relays on May 27, 1961.
Boston qualified for the Summer Olympics in Rome, where he took the gold medal in the long jump, setting the Olympic record at 8.12 m (26 ft 71⁄2 in), while narrowly defeating American teammate Bo Roberson by a mere centimeter.
Boston won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national championship in the long jump six times in a row from 1961 to 1966. He also had the longest triple jump for an American in 1963. He returned to the Tokyo Olympics as the world record holder after losing the record to Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, then regaining the record a couple of months before the games, first in Kingston, Jamaica, and improving it at the 1964 Olympic Trials. In the Olympic final, Boston exchanged the lead with Ter-Ovanesyan. Going into the fifth round, Boston was leading but fouled while both Lynn Davies and Ter-Ovanesyan jumped past him. On his final jump, he was able to jump past Ter-Ovanesyan, but could not catch Davies and ended winning the silver medal.
Boston's final record improvement to 8.35m was again at the 1965 Modesto Relays. It was tied at altitude by Ter-Ovanesyan in 1967. In 1967, he lost the national title to Jerry Proctor. When rival Bob Beamon was suspended from the University of Texas at El Paso, for refusing to compete against Brigham Young University, alleging it had racist policies, Boston began to coach him unofficially. Beamon took the 1968 National Championships. At the 1968 Olympics, Boston watched his pupil destroy the world record by jumping 8.90 m (29' 2 1/2"). Boston was then 29 years old. Boston won a bronze medal behind Beamon and Klaus Beer and retired from competitions shortly thereafter. He moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, and worked for the University of Tennessee as Coordinator of Minority Affairs and Assistant Dean of Students from 1968 to 1975. He was the field event reporter for the CBS Sports Spectacular coverage of domestic track and field events. He was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974 and into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 1985.
*****
*Lou Brock, a Major League Baseball player whose career 938 stolen bases set a record and served as the foundation for his induction into Baseball Hall of Fame, was born in El Dorado, Arkansas.
Lou Brock, byname of Louis Clark Brock (b. June 18, 1939, El Dorado, Arkansas) was a professional National League baseball player whose career 938 stolen bases (1961–79) set a record that held until 1991, when it was broken by Rickey Henderson.
Brock was best known for breaking Ty Cobb's all-time major league stolen base record in 1977. He was an All-Star for six seasons and a National League (NL) stolen base leader for eight seasons. He led the National League in doubles and triples in 1968. He also led the National League in singles in 1972, and was the runner-up for the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1974.
Brock was best known for breaking Ty Cobb's all-time major league stolen base record in 1977. He was an All-Star for six seasons and a National League (NL) stolen base leader for eight seasons. He led the National League in doubles and triples in 1968. He also led the National League in singles in 1972, and was the runner-up for the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1974.
Brock followed his childhood interest in baseball by playing at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he both pitched and played in the outfield. He threw and hit left-handed. He was signed to a contract by the Chicago Cubs in 1961 and played on their farm teams before moving to the major leagues in 1962. With the Cubs, his outfield playing was erratic, and his speed on the bases was unproductive. When he went into a hitting slump in 1964 (.251 in 52 games), he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he hit .348 for the rest of the season (.315 in all). Thereafter, he led the league in stolen bases (1966–69 and 1971–74), stealing 50 or more bases each year (1965–76). His batting average was .300 or higher for eight seasons and .293 in his career. In 1974 he stole 118 bases, a new season record until 1982, when Rickey Henderson stole 130. Brock hit .414 in the 1967 World Series and .464 in the 1968 series. He retired after the 1979 season and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.
While still playing baseball, Brock opened a florist shop in Clayton, Missouri. He later was a television broadcaster for the Cardinals, and in 1994 he became a special instructor for the team.
*****
Bernard Terry Casey (June 8, 1939 – September 19, 2017)[2] was an American actor, poet, and professional football player.
Casey was born in Wyco, West Virginia, the son of Flossie (Coleman) and Frank Leslie Casey.[3] He graduated from East High School in Columbus, Ohio.[2]
Casey was a record-breaking track and field athlete for Bowling Green State University.[4] He earned All-America recognition and a trip to the finals at the 1960 United States Olympic Trials. In addition to national honors, Casey won three consecutive Mid-American Conference titles in the high-hurdles, 1958–60.[5]
Casey was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1961 as the 9th pick in the first round. He played for eight NFL seasons: six with the 49ers and two with the Los Angeles Rams.[2] His best-known play came in 1967 for the Rams in the penultimate game of the season against the Green Bay Packers. The Rams needed to win to keep their division title hopes alive, but trailed the Packers 24–20 with under a minute to play.[citation needed] The Rams then blocked a punt and ran it back to the 5 yard line. After an incomplete pass, Casey caught the winning touchdown pass from Roman Gabriel with under 30 seconds to play to give the Rams a 27–24 victory. The Rams defeated the Colts the following week to win the Coastal Division title.[citation needed]
Casey began his acting career in the film Guns of the Magnificent Seven, a sequel to The Magnificent Seven. Then he played opposite fellow former NFL star Jim Brown in the crime dramas ...tick...tick...tick... and Black Gunn. He played the title role in the 1972 science fiction TV film Gargoyles. He also played Tamara Dobson's love interest in 1973's Cleopatra Jones.
From there he moved between performances on television and the big screen such as playing team captain for the Chicago Bears in the TV film Brian's Song. In 1979, he starred as widower Mike Harris in the NBC television series Harris and Company, the first weekly American TV drama series centered on a black family. In 1980, he played Major Jeff Spender in the television mini-series The Martian Chronicles, based on the novel by Ray Bradbury.
In 1981, Casey played a detective opposite Burt Reynolds in the feature film Sharky's Machine, directed by Reynolds. He reunited with Reynolds a few years later for the crime story Rent-a-Cop.
In 1983, he played the role of CIA agent Felix Leiter in the non-Eon Productions James Bond film Never Say Never Again. He co-starred in Revenge of the Nerdsand had a comedic role as Colonel Rhombus in the John Landis film Spies Like Us. Casey also appeared in the movie Hit Man.
Also during his career, he worked with such well-known directors as Martin Scorsese in his 1972 film Boxcar Bertha and appeared on such television series as The Streets of San Francisco and as U. N. Jefferson, the national head of the Lambda Lambda Lambda fraternity in Revenge of the Nerds.
He played a version of himself, and other football players turned actors, in Keenen Ivory Wayans's 1988 comedic film I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. He played a high school teacher in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, released in 1989. Casey appeared as a very influential prisoner with outside connections in Walter Hill's Another 48 Hrs.. In 1992, he appeared as a Naval officer in the battleship USS Missouri in Under Siege.
In 1994, Casey guest-starred in a two-episode story arc in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (along with series star Avery Brooks) as the Maquis leader Lieutenant Commander Cal Hudson, and in 1995 as a guest-star on both SeaQuest 2032 as Admiral VanAlden and Babylon 5 as Derek Cranston. He has continued working as an actor. In 2006, he co-starred in the film When I Find the Ocean alongside such actors as Lee Majors.
He enjoyed painting and writing poetry. Look at the People, a book of his paintings and poems, was published by Doubleday in 1969.[6]
Casey died in Los Angeles on September 19, 2017 at the age of 78.[7]
*****
*Barbara Chase-Riboud, the author of Sally Hemings a novel about the slave who is believed to have had an intimate relationship with Thomas Jefferson, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (June 26).
Barbara Chase-Riboud, (b. Barbara Chase, June 26, 1939, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), first established as a sculptor, Chase-Riboud attained international recognition with the publication of her first novel, Sally Hemings (1979). The novel is the first full blown imagining of Hemings and her life as a slave, including her rumored relationship with Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. In addition to stimulating considerable controversy, as mainline historians then continued to deny this relationship, the book earned Chase-Riboud the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best novel written by an American woman. It sold more than one million copies in hardcover and it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. It was reissued in 1994, and in paperback in 2009, together with her novel, President's Daughter (1994), about Harriet Hemings.
Chase-Riboud received numerous honors for her literary work, including the Carl Sandburg Prize for poetry and the Women's Caucus for Art's lifetime achievement award. In 1965, she became the first American woman to visit the People's Republic of China after the revolution. In 1996, she was knighted by the French Government and received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
In 1996, Chase-Riboud was among artists commissioned for artwork at the preserved African Burial Ground National Monument, at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Her memorial, Africa Rising, was installed in 1998.
Barbara Chase was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only child of Vivian May Chase, a histology technician, and Charles Edward Chase, a contractor. Chase displayed an early talent for the arts and began attending the Fleisher Art Memorial School at the age of 8. She continued her training at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art. At 15, Chase won an award for one of her prints, which was subsequently purchased by the Museum of Modern Art. Chase went on to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Tyler School at Temple University in 1957.
In that same year, Chase won a John Hay Whitney fellowship to study at the American Academy in Rome for 12 months. There, she created her first bronze sculptures and exhibited her work. During this time, she traveled to Egypt, where she discovered non-European art. In 1960, Chase completed a master's degree from Yale University School of Design and Architecture. After completing her studies, Chase left the United States for London, then Paris.
In Paris, Chase met Marc Riboud, a photographer who was part of the Magnum group. They married in 1961. The couple had two sons together. They traveled extensively in Russia, India, Greece and North Africa.
Years later they divorced. In 1981, Chase-Riboud married her second husband, Sergio Tosi, an art publisher and expert.
*****
*Alyce Griffin Clarke, the first African American woman member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi (July 3).
Alyce Griffin Clarke (b. July 3, 1939, Yazoo City, Mississippi) was appointed to fill the term of Fred Banks, who had been appointed a circuit judge. Born in Yazoo City, Clarke was educated in Mississippi schools, taking four M. S. degrees, each at a different school. She worked as a public school teacher and as a nutritionist.
*****
*Ernie Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, was born in New Salem, Pennsylvania.
Ernie Davis, byname of Ernest R. Davis, also called the Elmira Express (b. Dec. 14, 1939, New Salem, Pennsylvania — d. May 18, 1963, Cleveland, Ohio), as a student at Elmira (New York) Free Academy, was a high-school All-American in football and basketball, Widely recruited to play running back in collegiate football, he chose to attend Syracuse University, in part because it was the school of his idol, Jim Brown. Davis wore Brown’s number 44 at Syracuse, and in his sophomore year there he led the Orangemen to an undefeated season and a national championship. Syracuse clinched the national title with a 23–14 victory over the University of Texas in the 1960 Cotton Bowl. The game was highlighted by Davis’s two touchdowns, which earned him Cotton Bowl Most Valuable Player honors. He was named an All-American in both his junior and senior seasons at Syracuse, and in 1961 he was awarded the Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding player in American college football—the first African American so honored.
Davis was selected with the first overall pick of the 1962 National Football League draft by the Washington Redskins, who then traded him to the Cleveland Browns, whose owner Art Modell planned to pair Davis with Jim Brown in the team’s backfield. Davis never played a game for the Browns, however, as he was diagnosed with leukemia before the College All-Star Game in July 1962. He underwent a variety of treatments in an attempt to return to football, but they were all unsuccessful. He died in a Cleveland hospital in 1963. Davis was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979.
*****
*Tommy Davis, a Major League Baseball player who was a two-time National League batting champion, was born in Brooklyn, New York (March 21).
Herman Thomas "Tommy" Davis, Jr. (b. March 21, 1939, Brooklyn, New York) was a Major League Baseball left fielder and third baseman. He played from 1959–76 for ten different teams, but he is best known for his years with the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was a two-time National League batting champion.
During an 18-year baseball career, Davis batted .294 with 153 home runs, 2,121 hits and 1,052 runs batted in. He was also one of the most proficient pinch-hitters in baseball history with a .320 batting average (63-for-197) – the highest in major league history upon his retirement, breaking the .312 mark of Frenchy Bordagaray. In 1962, he finished third in the MVP voting after leading the major leagues in batting average, hits and runs batted in. Davis' 153 RBIs in that season broke Roy Campanella's team record of 142 in 1953, and his 230 hits are the team record for a right-handed batter (second most in franchise history behind only Babe Herman's 241 in 1930), and his .346 average was the highest by a Dodger right-handed hitter in the 20th century until it was broken by Mike Piazza in 1997.
*****
*Marion Wright Edelman, an activist for the rights of children and the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, was born in Bennettsville, South Carolina.
Marian Wright Edelman (b. June 6, 1939, Bennettsville, South Carolina) was an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. She was also the president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.
Marian Wright was born June 6, 1939 in Bennettsville, South Carolina. In 1953, her father died when she was 14, urging in his last words, "Don't let anything get in the way of your education."
Marian attended Marlboro Training High School in Bennettsville, and went on to Spelman College and traveled the world on a Merrill scholarship and studied in the Soviet Union as a Lisle fellow. She also became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and after being arrested for her activism, she decided to study law and enrolled at Yale Law School where she earned a Juris Doctor in 1963
Edelman was the first African American woman admitted to The Mississippi Bar. She began practicing law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund's Mississippi office, working on racial justice issues connected with the civil rights movement and representing activists during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. She also helped establish a Head Start program.
Edelman was the first African American woman admitted to The Mississippi Bar. She began practicing law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund's Mississippi office, working on racial justice issues connected with the civil rights movement and representing activists during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. She also helped establish a Head Start program.
Edelman moved in 1968 to Washington, D. C. where she continued her work and contributed to the organizing of the Poor People's Campaign of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and also became interested in issues related to childhood development and children.
In 1973, she founded the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) as a voice for poor children, children of color,and children with disabilities. The organization has served as an advocacy and research center for children's issues, documenting the problems and possible solutions to children in need. She also became involved in several school desegregation cases and served on the board of the Child Development Group of Mississippi, which represented one of the largest Head Start programs in the country.
As founder, leader and principal spokesperson for the CDF, Edelman worked to persuade Congress to overhaul foster care, support adoption, improve child care and protect children who are disabled, homeless, abused or neglected.
During a tour with Robert Kennedy and Joseph Clark of Mississippi's poverty-ridden Delta slums in 1967, she met Peter Edelman, an assistant to Kennedy. They married on July 14, 1968.
*****
*Brooke Edgerson, a football cornerback who was named to the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame, was born in Baxter County, Arkansas).
Booker Tyrone Edgerson (b. July 5, 1939, Baxter County, Arkansas), a graduate of Western Illinois University was a cornerstone of the American Football League (AFL) Buffalo Bills' defense in the mid-1960s, at left cornerback. A four-year letterman (football, baseball, wrestling, and track and field) at Western Illinois University (WIU). In 1959 and 1960, he led the WIU football team to the only consecutive undefeated seasons in school history, and is in the WIU Hall of Fame.
Edgerson signed as a free agent with the Bills in 1962 and stepped into a starting role at left cornerback. He made a career-high six interceptions (including two in his first game, against Hall of Famer George Blanda), and was named to the AFL All-Rookie team.
Edgerson's college background as a sprinter and long jumper served him well in the demanding role of man-to-man pass coverage. The AFL featured many dangerous receivers at that time, and Edgerson became one of the key components of the league's best defense.
Edgerson appeared in the playoffs four consecutive years, and in three straight AFL Championship games. The Bills beat the San Diego Chargers in 1964, and again in 1965, when Edgerson was selected as an American Football League All-Star.
Edgerson had 23 interceptions in his eight-year career in Buffalo, and scored on two, including one against Joe Namath. He also forced and returned a fumble for the deciding score in a 1969 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, played in blizzard conditions.
Edgerson retired to Buffalo, where he became involved in numerous charitable endeavors through the Bills Alumni, and was the 1993 recipient of the Ralph C. Wilson Award. He also became a member of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.
Edgerson was selected to be the 2010 Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame inductee where his name was revealed during a halftime ceremony on October 3 during the Bills game against AFC rival New York Jets.
Edgerson wrote the foreword to The Cookie That Did Not Crumble, the autobiography of his former teammate, Cookie Gilchrist.
*****
*Singer Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina (February 10). Her hits would include the 1973 Grammy Record of the Year "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and the 1974 Grammy Record of the Year "Killing Me Softly with His Song."
Roberta Cleopatra Flack (b. February 10, 1939, Black Mountain, North Carolina) is best known for her classic hit singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", and for "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway.
Flack was the first to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year two consecutive times. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won at the 1974 Grammys. She remains the only solo artist to have accomplished this feat.
Flack lived with a musical family, born in Black Mountain, North Carolina to parents Laron LeRoy (October 11, 1911 – July 12, 1959) and Irene Flack (September 28, 1911 – January 17, 1981), a church organist, on February 10, 1939 (some sources say 1937) and raised in Arlington, Virginia. She first discovered the work of African American musical artists when she heard Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke sing in a predominantly African-American Baptist church.
When Flack was 9, she started taking an interest in playing the piano, and during her early teens, Flack so excelled at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. By age 15, she entered Howard University, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there. She eventually changed her major from piano to voice, and became an assistant conductor of the university choir. Her direction of a production of Aida received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty.
Roberta Flack became a student teacher at a school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She graduated from Howard University at 19 and began graduate studies in music, but the sudden death of her father forced her to take a job teaching music and English for $2800 a year in Farmville, North Carolina.
Before becoming a professional singer-songwriter, Flack returned to Washington, D.C. and taught at Browne Junior High and Rabaut Junior High. She also taught private piano lessons out of her home on Euclid St. NW. During this period, her music career began to take shape on evenings and weekends in Washington, D.C. area night spots. At the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers at the piano. During intermissions, she would sing blues, folk, and pop standards in a back room, accompanying herself on the piano. Later, she performed several nights a week at the 1520 Club, again providing her own piano accompaniment. Flack began singing professionally after being hired to perform regularly at Mr. Henry's Restaurant, on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. in 1968.
Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub. Very quickly, he arranged an audition for her with Atlantic Records, during which she played 42 songs in 3 hours for producer Joel Dorn. In November 1968, she recorded 39 song demos in less than 10 hours. Three months later, Atlantic reportedly recorded Roberta's debut album, First Take, in a mere 10 hours.
Flack's cover version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" hit number seventy-six on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Her Atlantic recordings did not sell particularly well, until actor/director Clint Eastwood chose a song from First Take, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", for the sound track of his directorial debut Play Misty for Me; it became the biggest hit of the year for 1972 – spending six consecutive weeks at No.1 and earning Flack a million-selling Gold disc. The First Take album also went to No. 1 and eventually sold 1.9 million copies in the United States. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1973.
Flack followed "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" with several other chart-topping duets with Howard classmate Donny Hathaway, including "Where Is the Love," "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love."
During the late 1970s, Flack took a break from performing to concentrate on recording and charitable causes. In 1979, tragedy struck when Hathaway committed suicide, and she was forced to find another partner. Eventually teaming up and touring with Peabo Bryson in 1980, the duo scored a hit in 1983 with "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love." She spent the remainder of the 1980s touring and performing, and returned to the Top Ten once more in 1991 with "Set the Night to Music," a duet with Maxi Priest. In 1997, Flack released an anthology of Christmas standards simply titled Christmas Album.
******Sonny Fortune, a jazz alto saxophonist and flautist, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (May 19).
Sonny Fortune (b. May 19, 1939, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), a jazz alto saxophonist and flautist, also plays soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, and clarinet.
After moving to New York City in 1967 Fortune recorded and appeared live with drummer Elvin Jones' group. In 1968 he was a member of Mongo Santamaria's band. He subsequently performed with singer Leon Thomas, and with pianist McCoy Tyner (1971–73).
In 1974, Fortune replaced Dave Liebman in Miles Davis' ensemble, remaining until spring 1975, when he was succeeded by Sam Morrison. Fortune can be heard on the albums Big Fun, Get Up With It, Agharta and Pangaea, the last two recorded live in Japan.
Fortune joined Nat Adderley after his brief tenure with Davis, and then went on to form his own group in June 1975, recording two albums for the Horizon (A&M) label. During the 1990s, he recorded several acclaimed albums for the Blue Note label. He has also performed with Roy Brooks, Buddy Rich, George Benson, Rabih Abou Khalil, Roy Ayers, Oliver Nelson, Gary Bartz, Rashied Ali and Pharoah Sanders, as well as appearing on the live album The Atlantic Family Live at Montreux (1977).
*Marvin Gaye, a soul singer-songwriter-producer who, to a large extent, ushered in the era of artist-controlled popular music of the 1970s with his groundbreaking album What's Going On, was born in Washington, D. C. (April 2).
Marvin Gaye, byname of Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (b. April 2, 1939, Washington, D.C. — d. April 1, 1984, Los Angeles, California) American soul singer-songwriter-producer who, to a large extent, ushered in the era of artist-controlled popular music of the 1970s. Gaye’s father was a storefront preacher and his mother was a domestic worker. Gaye sang in his father’s evangelical church in Washington, D.C., and became a member of a nationally known doo-wop group, the Moonglows, under the direction of Harvey Fuqua, one of the genre’s foremost maestros, who relocated the group to Chicago.
When doo-wop dissipated in the late 1950s, Gaye had already absorbed Fuqua’s lessons in close harmony. After disbanding the Moonglows, Fuqua took the 20-year-old Gaye to Detroit, Michigan, where Berry Gordy, Jr., was forming Motown Records.
Gaye, who also played drums and piano, bucked theMotown system and its emphasis on teen hits. He was set on being a crooner in the Nat King Cole-Frank Sinatra vein, but his first efforts in that style failed. His break came with “Stubborn Kinda Fellow” (1962), the first of a long string of hits in the Motown mold — mainly songs written and produced by others, including “I’ll Be Doggone” (1965), by Smokey Robinson, and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1968), by Norman Whitfield. Gaye also enjoyed a series of successful duets, most notably with Tammi Terrell (“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” [1968]).
Blessed with an exceptionally wide range that encompassed three distinct vocal styles—a piercing falsetto, a smooth mid-range tenor, and a deep gospel growl — Gaye combined great technical prowess with rare musical individuality. Rebellious by nature, he turned the tables on Motown’s producer-driven hierarchy by becoming his own producer for What's Going On (1971), the most significant work of his career. A suite of jazz-influenced songs on the nature of America’s political and social woes, this concept album—still a novel format at the time—painted a poignant landscape of America’s black urban neighborhoods. Gaye also displayed dazzling virtuosity by overdubbing (building sound track by track onto a single tape) his own voice three or four times to provide his own rich harmony, a technique he would employ for the rest of his career. What's Going On was a critical and commercial sensation in spite of the fact that Gordy, fearing its political content (and its stand against the Vietnam War), had argued against its release.
Other major artists—most importantly Stevie Wonder — followed Gaye’s lead and acted as producer of their own efforts. In 1972 Gaye wrote the soundtrack for the film Trouble Man, with lyrics that mirrored his own sense of insecurity. Let’s Get It On, released in 1973, displayed Gaye’s sensuous side. I Want You(1976) was another meditation on libidinous liberation. Here, My Dear (1979) brilliantly dealt with Gaye’s divorce from Gordy’s sister Anna (the first of the singer’s two tumultuous divorces).
Gaye’s growing addiction to cocaine exacerbated his psychological struggles. Deeply indebted to the Internal Revenue Service, he fled the country, living in exile in England and Belgium, where he wrote “Sexual Healing” (1982), the song that signaled his comeback and led to his only Grammy Award.
Back in Los Angeles, his home from the 1970s, his essential conflict—between the sacred and secular—grew more intense. His 1983 “Sexual Healing” tour, his last, was marked by chaos and confusion. On April 1, 1984, during a family dispute, Gaye initiated a violent fight with his father, who shot him to death. Those close to the singer theorized that it was a death wish come true. For months before, he had toyed with suicide. Gaye, who cited his chief influences as Ray Charles, Clyde McPhatter, Rudy West (lead singer for the doo-wop group the Five Keys), and Little Willie John, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
As an artist who employed urban soul music to express social and personal concerns, as well as a singer of exquisite sensitivity and romantic grace, Gaye left a legacy that has widened since his demise, and his music has become a permanent fixture in American pop.
******Eddie Kendricks, a lead singer for The Temptations singing group best known for his lead vocals on the hit "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me), was born in Union Springs, Alabama.
Edward James Kendrick (b. December 17, 1939, Union Springs, Alabama – d. October 5, 1992, Birmingham, Alabama), best known by the stage name Eddie Kendricks, was a singer and songwriter. Noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style, Kendricks co-founded the Motown singing group The Temptations, and was one of their lead singers from 1960 until 1971. His was the lead voice on such famous songs as "The Way You Do The Things You Do", "Get Ready", and "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)". As a solo artist, Kendricks recorded several hits of his own during the 1970s, including the number-one single "Keep On Truckin'".
Kendricks was born in Union Springs, Alabama, on December 17, 1939, the son of Johnny and Lee Bell Kendrick. He had one sister, Patricia, and three brothers, Charles, Robert, and Clarence. His family moved to the Ensley neighborhood of Birmingham, where he met and began singing with his best friend Paul Williams in their church choir in the late 1940s. In 1955, Kendricks, Williams, and friends Kell Osborne and Jerome Averette formed a doo-wop group called The Cavaliers, and began performing around Birmingham. The group decided to move for better opportunities in their musical careers, and in 1957 the group moved to Cleveland, Ohio on East 123rd and Kinsman. In Cleveland, they met manager Milton Jenkins, and soon moved with Jenkins to Detroit, Michigan, where the Cavaliers renamed themselves "The Primes". Under Jenkins' management, the Primes were successful in the Detroit area, eventually creating a female spin-off group called The Primettes (later known as The Supremes). In 1961, Osbourne moved to California, and the Primes disbanded. Kendricks and Paul Williams joined forces with members Otis Williams and Melvin "Blue" Franklin of Otis Wiliiams and the Distants after three members quit. The Primes then became The Elgins, who on the same day changed their name to "The Temptations" and signed to Motown.
The Temptations began singing background for Mary Wells. After an initial dry period, The Temptations quickly became the most successful male vocal group of the 1960s. Although technically Kendricks was first tenor in the group's harmony, he predominately sang in a falsetto voice. Among the Temptations songs Kendricks sang lead on were "Dream Come True" (1962), the group's first charting single; "The Way You Do the Things You Do" (1964), the group's first United States Top 20 hit; "I'll Be in Trouble" (1964); "The Girl's Alright With Me" (1964), a popular b-side that Kendricks co-wrote; "Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)" (1964); "Get Ready" (1966); "Please Return Your Love to Me" (1968); and "Just My Imagination" (1971). He was also allowed to sing a few leads in his natural voice such as "May I Have This Dance" (1962). He shared lead vocal duty on other records, including "You're My Everything (The Temptations' song) (1967) (shared with David Ruffin), and a long string of Norman Whitfield produced psychedelic soul records where all five Temptations sang lead, such as the Grammy winner "Cloud Nine" (1968), "I Can't Get Next to You" (1969), and "Ball of Confusion" (1970). He also was the lead on "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (1968), a popular duet with Diana Ross and the Supremes, and on the Temptations' famous version of the Christmas classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1968).
In the Temptations, Kendricks was responsible for creating most of the group's vocal arrangements, and also served as wardrobe manager, including the now famous purple suits the group wore for one performance. Though Whitfield had chief responsibility for writing, Kendricks co-wrote and received credit for several Temptations songs apart from "The Girl's Alright With Me" including "Isn't She Pretty" (1961) and "Don't Send Me Away" (1967). His favorite food was cornbread, and as a result he was nicknamed "Cornbread" (or "Corn" for short) by his groupmates.
Kendricks remained in the group through the rest of the decade, but a number of issues began to push him away from it in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
By the time the Temptations scored their 11th number one R&B hit with "Just My Imagination," Kendricks had left to pursue a solo a career. Many fans questioned the wisdom of his leaving such a successful group, but he proved to be quite viable as a solo act thanks to early-'70s singles like "Keep on Truckin,'" a number one R&B hit, and "Boogie Down," which went to number two on the R&B chart. Other noteworthy solo hits followed, including "Shoeshine Boy," "Get the Cream Off the Top," "Happy" in 1975," and "He's a Friend" in 1976. Most of his solo albums came out on Motown, although Kendricks recorded for Arista and Atlantic during the late '70s and early '80s. By that time, however, his popularity had decreased considerably. The singer was not heard from much in the '80s, though in 1985, he did participate in the Artists United Against Apartheid's Sun City project and recorded Live at the Apollo with Daryl Hall, John Oates, and Temptation partner David Ruffin. Two years later, Kendricks and Ruffin released an album for RCA.
In 1989, Kendrick, Ruffin, and their Temptations bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There, Kendrick and Ruffin made plans with fellow former Temptation Dennis Edwards to tour and record as "Ruffin/Kendrick/Edwards, Former Leads of The Temptations." The Ruffin/Kendrick/ Edwards project was cut short in 1991, when Kendrick was diagnosed with lung cancer and David Ruffin died of a drug overdose, although Kendrick and Edwards continued to tour for the remainder of 1991.
In 1989, Kendrick, Ruffin, and their Temptations bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There, Kendrick and Ruffin made plans with fellow former Temptation Dennis Edwards to tour and record as "Ruffin/Kendrick/Edwards, Former Leads of The Temptations." The Ruffin/Kendrick/ Edwards project was cut short in 1991, when Kendrick was diagnosed with lung cancer and David Ruffin died of a drug overdose, although Kendrick and Edwards continued to tour for the remainder of 1991.
Sadly, the '90s would see the premature deaths of no less than three former members of the Temptations. First, Ruffin died of a cocaine overdose in 1991, followed by the deaths of Kendricks in 1992, and Melvin Franklin (from a brain seizure) in 1995. (Tragedy was nothing new to Temptations members: Paul Williams had committed suicide back in 1973). Kendricks was only 52 when he died of lung cancer in his native Birmingham on October 5, 1992.
In 1998, NBC aired The Temptations, a four-hour television miniseries based upon an autobiographical book by Otis Williams. Kendricks was portrayed by actor Terron Brooks.
On October 16, 1999, Eddie Kendrick Memorial Park located on the corner of 18th Street and 4th Avenue North, was dedicated to Birmingham native Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations. The park uses Kendricks' family name sans the "s", which was added early in his career. The memorial features a bronze sculpture of Kendricks by local artist Ron McDowell, as well as sculptures of the other Temptations, set into a granite wall. Inscribed on the granite are the names of Temptation's hit songs. Recorded music can be heard throughout the park, featuring songs by Kendricks and the Temptations.
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*Yaphet Kotto, a Jewish Afro-American actor best known for his roles in the movies Alien and Live and Let Die, was born in New York City, New York.
Yaphet Frederick Kotto (b. November 15, 1939, New York City, New York) starred in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–99) as Lieutenant Al Giardello. His films include the science-fiction/horror film Alien (1979), and the Arnold Schwarzenegger science-fiction/action film The Running Man (1987). He portrayed the main villain Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die (1973). He appeared opposite Robert De Niro in the comedy thriller Midnight Run (1988) as FBI agent Alonzo Moseley.
Kotto was born in New York City. His mother was Gladys Marie, a nurse and United States Army officer. His father, Avraham Kotto (originally named Njoki Manga Bell), was a businessman from Cameroon who emigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Kotto's father was an observant Jew who spoke Hebrew. Kotto's mother, who was of Panamanian descent, converted to Judaism before marrying his father.
By the age of 16, Kotto was studying acting at the Actors Mobile Theater Studio, and at 19, he made his professional acting debut in Othello. He was a member of the Actors Studio in New York. Kotto got his start in acting on Broadway, where he appeared in The Great White Hope, among other productions.
Kotto's film debut was in 1963 in an uncredited role in 4 for Texas. He performed in Michael Roemer's Nothing But a Man (1964) and played a supporting role in the caper film, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) . He played John Auston, a confused Marine Lance Corporal, in the 1968 episode, "King of the Hill", on the first season of the original television series, Hawaii Five-O. In 1973, Kotto landed the role of the James Bond villain Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, as well as roles in Across 110th Street and Truck Turner. Kotto portrayed Idi Amin in the 1977 television film Raid on Entebbe. He also starred as an auto worker in the 1978 film Blue Collar.
The following year he played Parker in the trailblazing sci-fi-horror film Alien. He followed that with a supporting role in the 1980 prison drama Brubaker. In 1983, he guest-starred as mobster "Charlie" in The A-Team episode "The Out-of-Towners". In 1987, he appeared in the futuristic sci-fi movie The Running Man, and in 1988, in the action-comedy Midnight Run, in which he portrayed Alonzo Moseley, an FBI agent.
Beginning in 1993, Kotto played Lieutenant Al Giardello in the long-running television series Homicide: Life on the Street.
Kotto wrote two books: Royalty, and The Second Coming of Christ, and also wrote scripts for Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999).
In 2014, Kotto portrayed the voice of Parker for the video game Alien: Isolation, reprising the same role he played in the movie Alien in 1979.
Kotto married Tessie Sinahon in July 1998.
His first marriage was to Rita Ingrid Dittman, whom he married in 1962. They had three children together. They divorced in 1975.
Kotto secondly married Antoinette Pettyjohn, on January 29, 1975. They had two children together, and later divorced.
*Bertram Lee, the first African American to hold a majority stake in a major-league United States sports franchise (the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets), was born in Lynchburg, Virginia (January 21).
Bertram M. Lee, Sr. (b. January 21, 1939, Lynchburg, Virginia - d. October 7, 2003, Washington, D. C.) made history in 1989 when he became the first African American to hold a majority stake in a major-league United States sports franchise. Lee and his partners, who included the late United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, acquired the National Basketball Association’s Denver Nuggets team for $65 million.
Lee was born on January 21, 1939, in Lynchburg, Virginia, and was raised in a public-housing project. His father, William, was a teacher, and while his family was not an affluent one, neither were they poor. After finishing high school, Lee moved to Naperville, Illinois, to study at North Central College, and after earning his degree in 1961 he took a civil-service job with the city of Chicago. A stint in the United States Army between 1963 and 1965 interrupted that career, but he returned to City Hall to hold various posts in the administration of longtime Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.
In 1967, Lee was hired as the executive director of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of Greater Boston, which provided local African-American communities with empowerment aid. He and his wife Edith, whom he had met in college, soon moved to Boston with their infant daughter; a second daughter was born there. For a time, Lee’s fortunes thrived: he had a management consulting firm, and bought what was then the largest black-owned printing company in the United States, Geneva Printing and Publishing. With two investment partners, he acquired the business for $250,000, and though it won lucrative new contracts, it proved a steady money-loser, and Lee was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1975. He had neglected his management-consulting firm, and a magazine venture in Chicago in which he had a stake also tanked when paper costs skyrocketed.
Despite the setbacks, Lee had already planted the seeds for what would become one of the most profitable business ventures in his career. In 1969, he formed a Boston-area media group to challenge ownership of one of the city’s television stations, the ABC affiliate WNAC-TV. He and a group of fellow investors, calling themselves the Dudley Station Corporation, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which grants operating licenses to radio and television stations, to review the track record of the current owner, RKO, which they claimed had failed to meet its obligations to the community, according to the terms of its FCC license.
The Dudley Station group, for which Lee served as president, was actually one of two groups that was challenging the WNAC license. In 1978, Lee’s group merged with the other grass-roots organization to form the New England Television Corporation (NETV). A year later, the FCC revoked the RKO license for Boston’s Channel 7, and NETV was able to buy the affiliate in 1982. In the interim, the station had switched alliances and become a CBS affiliate. Lee and the other investors had spent 13 years in the courts, and were saddled with $5 million in legal fees in the end. They paid $22 million to buy the station, which was valued at $60 to $150 million. Lee, a senior vice president of the media group, had made an initial investment of $10,000.
The station’s changeover to new ownership in May of 1982—heralded with new call letters, WNEV-TV—was an historic first. The transaction represented the largest ownership and management interest of blacks and other minority groups of any major American television station.
Lee sold his stake in the station in 1986, cashing out with what was estimated to be a $5 million to $13 million profit. By then he was running BML Associates, Inc., which bore his initials. This Boston holding company had stakes in six enterprises; by 1988 it had posted $30 million in sales and earned a spot on Black Enterprise magazine’s list of leading African American-owned businesses. It owned radio stations in Utah and Nebraska under the Albimar Management name, operated pay telephones as Kellee Communications Group, and acquired a stake in an Atlanta hair-care company in early 1989. Lee was also involved in the Shawmut National Bank as a director, and chaired the Boston Bank of Commerce.
Lee had built up a network of political connections over the years that brought him to the attention of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who tapped him to serve as finance co-chair for his campaign to win the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination; he also worked for Jackson’s 1988 bid. Lee was friendly with a rising star in Democrat National Committee circles, Ron Brown, and brought the future U.S. Secretary of Commerce on board when he began a bid for another historic first: to purchase a major-league sports team. In 1986, Lee tentatively explored the possibility of acquiring the New England Patriots football team, and then moved from football to baseball when the Baltimore Orioles seemed ready to change hands. The football and baseball leagues, however, were long-entrenched operations, and such local franchises were prohibitively expensive to own and operate. Lee then looked into the National Basketball Association (NBA), which dated back to the 1950s and was thus considered a relative upstart in professional sports.
In 1988, Lee and his group lost out on a bid for the San Antonio Spurs when their $50 million tender offer proved too low. However, with some help from an encouraging new NBA commissioner, David Stern, Lee and his partners—which included tennis great Arthur Ashe as well as Brown—bought the Denver Nuggets for $65 million.
The announcement was made in a two-hour press conference at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in July of 1989. The Nuggets were the first among the 27 NBA teams to be owned by a black majority interest ownership group, even though about 70 percent of the NBA’s player roster at that time was African American.
Lee was long active in the TransAfrica Forum, an anti-apartheid group, and in 1990 helped organize Nelson Mandela’s visit to Boston in 1990 as part of the recently freed South African leader’s historic North American fundraising tour. He still had ties in Chicago, however, and in the late 1980s had moved back there after his wife died. His younger daughter wanted to attend high school in same city as her late mother and, for Lee, family took precedence over business for him.
Lee’s ownership stake in the Nuggets ended in 1991, when he failed to meet a $5 million capital call. After moving to Washington, D.C., around 1994, he continued his involvement with media ownership, and served as an interim board member for the progressive Pacifica Radio network. But his financial troubles returned in the late 1990s, compounded by lingering health problems from a parasite he picked up while traveling in South Africa.
Lee’s name was touted as a potential investor in a 1999 effort to bring a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise to Washington, but MLB executives had notoriously tough standards for potential owners, and the deal disintegrated.
Bertram M. Lee died on October 7, 2003 in Washington D. C. from a brain aneurysm.
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*Cleavon Little, a stage, film and television actor best known for his role as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 classic comedy Blazing Saddles, was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma (June 1).
Cleavon Jake Little (b. June 1, 1939, Chickasha, Oklahoma – d. October 22, 1992, Sherman Oaks, California) began his career in the late 1960s on the stage. In 1970, he starred in the Broadway production of Purlie for which he earned both a Drama Desk and a Tony Award. In 1972, Little starred as the irreverent Dr. Jerry Noland on the ABC sitcom Temperatures Rising. Two years later, he starred in the role for which he is best known, as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles.
In the 1980s, Little continued to appear in stage productions, films, and in guest spots on television series. In 1989, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor for his appearance on the NBC sitcom Dear John. From 1991 to 1992, he starred on the Fox sitcom True Colors.
Little was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma. He was the brother of singer DeEtta Little, best known for her performance of "Gonna Fly Now", the main them to the movie Rocky. Little was raised in California, graduating in 1957 from Kearny High School in San Diego and initially attended San Diego City College, and then San Diego State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in dramatic arts. After receiving a full scholarship to graduate school at Juilliard, he moved to New York. After completing studies at Juilliard, Little trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Little made his professional debut in February 1967, appearing off-Broadway at the Village Gate as the Muslim Witch in the original production of Barbara Garson's MacBird. This was followed by the role of Foxtrot in the original production of Bruce Jay Friedman's long-running play Scuba Duba which premiered in October 1967.
The following year, he made his first film appearance in a small uncredited role in What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968), as well as his first television appearance as a guest star on two episodes of Felony Squad. A series of small roles followed in films such as John and Mary (1969) and Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970).
Little made his Broadway debut in 1969 as Lee Haines in John Sebastian and Murray Schisgal's musical Jimmy Shine with Dustin Hoffman in the title role. In 1971, he returned to Broadway to portray the title role in Ossie Davis' musical Purlie, for which he won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for best actor in a musical.
A year later, Little was hired as an ensemble player on the syndicated TV variety weekly The David Frost Revue and he portrayed Shogo in Narrow Road to the Deep North on Broadway. In 1971, Little was chosen to portray the blind radio personality Super Soul in the car-chase movie Vanishing Point. That same year, he played Hawthorne Dooley in the pilot for The Waltons called "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story", helping John-Boy Walton search for his father; then again in season four, in an episode called "The Fighter", about a prizefighter who desired to build a church and be a preacher. He also played a burglar in a 1971 episode of All in the Family titled "Edith Writes a Song", and starred in the television disaster film The Day the Earth Moved (1974), opposite Jackie Cooper and Stella Stevens.
He then starred in the ABC sitcom Temperatures Rising, which aired in three different iterations from 1972–74, with Little's character of Dr. Jerry Noland as the only common element. He was cast as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 comedy film Blazing Saddles, after the studio rejected Richard Pryor, who co-wrote the script. Studio executives were apparently concerned about Pryor's reliability, given his reputation for drug use and unpredictable behavior and thought Little would be a safer choice. This role earned him a BAFTA Award nomination as most promising newcomer.
In 1975, Little returned to Broadway to portray the role of Lewis in the original production of Murray Schisgal's All Over Town under the direction of Dustin Hoffman. The following year, he appeared as Willy Stepp in the original production of Ronald Ribman's The Poison Tree at the Ambassador Theatre. He played a supporting role to Richard Pryor in the racing movie Greased Lightning (1977), based on the true life story of Wendell Scott, the first African American stock car racing winner in America.
In the years after Blazing Saddles, Little appeared in many less successful films, such as FM (1978), Scavenger Hunt (1979), The Salamander (1981), High Risk (1981), Jimmy the Kid (1982), Surf II (1984), and Toy Soldiers (1984). He also made guest appearances on The Mod Squad, The Rookies, Police Story, The Rockford Files, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, ABC Afterschool Specials, The Fall Guy, MacGyver, The Waltons and ALF.
He co-starred opposite Lauren Hutton and Jim Carrey in the 1985 horror comedy Once Bitten. In 1985, Little returned to Broadway to appear as Midge in Herb Gardner's Tony Award-winning play I'm Not Rappaporti, reuniting with Dear John star Judd Hirsch in New York and later on tour. The Broadway cast also featured Jace Alexander and Mercedes Ruehl.
In 1989 he had a role in Fletch Lives, the sequel to 1985's Fletch. The same year he appeared in the Dear John episode "Stand By Your Man", for which he won the Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy, Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy, defeating Robert Picardo, Jack Gilford, Leslie Nielsen, and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Little was slated to star in the TV series Mr. Dugan, where he was to play an African American Congressman, but that series was poorly received by real African American Congressmen and was canceled before making it to air. In 1991, he replaced Frankie Faison as Ronald Freeman, a dentist married to a white housewife, on the Fox sitcom True Colors. That same year, he also had a supporting role in the television series Bagdad Cafe, appearing in 12 episodes. Later that year, he was cast as a civil-rights lawyer in the television docudrama, Separate but Equal, starring Sidney Poitier, who portrayed the first African American United States Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, NAACP lead attorney in the 1954 Supreme Court case desegregating public schools. He also appeared in the TV series MacGyver as Frank Colton, half of a bounty hunter brother duo.Little's last appearance as an actor was a guest role on an episode of Tales from the Crypt. Often afflicted by ulcers and general stomach problems throughout his life, Little died of colorectal cancer on October 22, 1992. His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.
For Little's contribution to motion pictures, he was posthumously honored with a star February 1, 1994, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
*Idris Muhammad, a jazz drummer who played on Fats Domino's hit "Blueberry Hill", was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (November 13).
Idris Muhammad (Arabic: إدريس محمد; born Leo Morris; b. November 13, 1939, New Orleans, Louisiana – d. July 29, 2014, Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was an American jazz drummer who recorded extensively with many musicians, including Ahmad Jamal, Lou Donaldson, and Pharoah Sanders, among many others.
At 16 years old, one of Muhammad's earliest recorded sessions as a drummer was on Fats Domino's 1956 hit "Blueberry Hill". He changed his name in the 1960s upon his conversion to Islam. In 1966, he married Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, former member of the singing group known as the Crystals. Brooks converted to Islam with Muhammad and went for a time under the name Sakinah Muhammad. They separated in 1999. Together, they had two sons and two daughters, and Muhammad had one daughter from a previous marriage to Gracie Lee Edwards-Morris. Pharoah Sanders's son Idris is named after Idris Muhammad.
In 2012, Xlibris released the book Inside The Music: The Life of Idris Muhammad, which Muhammad wrote with his friend Britt Alexander.
He died on July 29, 2014 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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*Jerry Pinkney, a children's book illustrator and postage stamp designer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (December 22).
Jerry Pinkney (b. December 22, 1939, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) won the 2010 Caldecott Medal for United States picture book illustration, recognizing The Lion & the Mouse, a wordless version of Aesop's fable. He also had five Caldecott Honors, five Coretta Scott King Awards, four New York Times Best Illustrated Awards (most recently in 2006 for Little Red Hen), four Gold and four Silver medals from the Society of Illustrators, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (John Henry, 1994). In 2000, he was given the Virginia Hamilton Literary award from Kent State University and in 2004 the University of Southern Mississippi Medallion for outstanding contributions in the field of children’s literature. In 2016 he received the Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton Award for lifetime achievement.
For his contribution as a children's illustrator, Pinkney was United States nominee in 1998 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books.
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*James Shaw, a singer, songwriter and record producer known as "The Mighty Hannibal", was born in Atlanta, Georgia (August 9).
James Timothy Shaw (b. August 9, 1939, Atlanta, Georgia – d. January 30, 2014, Bronx, New York City, New York), known as The Mighty Hannibal, was an American R&B, soul and funk singer, songwriter and record producer. Known for his showmanship, and outlandish costumes often incorporating a pink turban, several of his songs carried social or political themes. His biggest hit was "Hymn No. 5," a commentary on the effects of the Vietnam War on servicemen, which was banned on radio.
James Timothy Shaw was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Corrie Belle and James Henry Shaw. He was raised in the Vine City neighborhood of Atlanta. He started singing doo-wop as a teenager, and in 1954 he joined his first group, The Overalls. The outfit contained Shaw and Robert Butts plus Edward Patten and Merald "Bubba" Knight. The latter two later tasted success as part of Gladys Knight's backing group, The Pips. From that time, Shaw credited Grover Mitchell as his singing voice mentor. In 1958 Shaw moved to Los Angeles where, under the name of Jimmy Shaw, he recorded his debut solo single, "Big Chief Hug-Um An' Kiss-Um," a novelty song issued on the Concept label. This was followed by further releases including "The Biggest Cry," and "I Need a Woman ('Cause I'm a Man)."
Subsequently working as a singer with Johnny Otis, Shaw went on to sing in another group featuring H. B. Barnum and Jimmy Norman. At this time, he befriended both Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Larry Williams before, in 1959, and at the suggestion of Aki Aleong, adopting the name 'Hannibal'. He then released a small number of singles on the Pan World label. In 1962, he joined King Records, who released four further singles, the biggest seller being "Baby, Please Change Your Mind". Between 1962 and 1965, Hannibal pursued a lifestyle that saw him dropped by King.
He returned to Atlanta, and was recruited as the frontman by Dennis St. John and the Cardinals, who supported Tommy Roe at one gig. They ultimately backed Hannibal on most of his subsequent recordings with the Shurfine label, and played live engagements with Hannibal around Atlanta. Hannibal's first release with Shurfine was "Jerkin' the Dog," (1965) a modest success for a basic teen dance record. The similarly framed "Fishin' Pole" followed in 1966. The same year Hannibal adopted a more socially conscious stance. He stated "Me and my wife were watching the news and Walter Cronkite was talking about how all the soldiers were coming back from Vietnam addicted to opium." The couple penned "Hymn No. 5" in a short time space, and it duly became his best known recording, reaching No. 21 on the Billboard R&B chart. The success the track brought however fueled Hannibal's growing heroin addiction, and Hannibal spent eighteen months in prison for failing to pay a tax bill. Released from jail and free of drugs, he restarted his recording career in the early 1970s now billed as King Hannibal. He issued a number of singles and an album, Truth, (1973) on the Aware label. His singles included "I'm Coming Home," another social comment on the ongoing Vietnam situation, and the anti-drug song, "The Truth Shall Make You Free (St. John 8:32)," a No. 37 R&B hit in 1973.
Finding a new direction with gospel based recordings, his songwriting nevertheless suffered in the late 1970s. Hannibal was employed as a cameo role actor, and on the staff as a record producer at Venture Records, before working on the Atlanta Voice newspaper. Hannibal recalled his odd blend of country, gospel and disco finding some success in the Netherlands with "Hoedown Disco" in the mid 1970s, but worse fortunes followed as Hannibal remained in relative obscurity until 1998. A CD album release, titled Who Told You That, gave his career some momentum, and in 2001 Norton Records released Hannibalism, a compilation album of songs written between 1958 and 1973. The cult film, Velvet Goldmine, also included fragments of his work.
Hannibal lost his eyesight in 2002 because of glaucoma. He was the subject of a documentary film, Showtime! (2009) directed by Ezra Bookstein. In December 2005, Hannibal was the Master of Ceremonies at Norton Records' New Year's Eve Rock N' Roll Show & Dance at Union Pool in Brooklyn. He continued to perform live, and enjoyed a seventieth birthday celebration on stage in 2009. He contributed the following year on Elton John and Leon Russell's first album together, The Union, by co-writing the track "There's No Tomorrow."
Hannibal died on January 30, 2014, at the age of 74.
*Mavis Staples, a gospel and soul singer best known for the rhythm and blues No. 1 hit singles "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again" while a member of the Staple Singers, was born in Chicago, Illinois.
Mavis Staples, (b. July 10, 1939, Chicago, Illinois) was an integral part of the Staple Singers as well as a successful solo artist.
At age 11, Staples joined the Staple Singers, a family gospel-singing group led by her father, Roebuck ("Pops") Staples. As a high school graduate in 1957, she had aspirations of becoming a nurse, but her father persuaded her to stay with the group, which recorded several gospel hits by the early 1960s. The Staple Singers’ transition to soul and rhythm and blues began in the late 1960s, when they signed with Stax Records — the same label on which Staples recorded her solo debut, Mavis Staples, in 1969. Her second solo effort, Only for the Lonely (1970), included the hit “
Staples made her first solo foray while at Epic Records with The Staple Singers releasing a lone single "Crying in the Chapel" to little fanfare in the late 1960s. However, Staples' solo albums of the late 1970s and ’80s did not fare well as she experimented unsuccessfully with disco and electro-pop. Time Waits for No One (1989) and The Voice (1993), despite critics’ praise, also failed to prosper, and Staples’s struggle to find a suitable outlet for her music continued. In 1996 she recorded Spirituals and Gospel: Dedicated to Mahalia Jackson in honor of Jackson, a close friend and role model. Staples curtailed her musical activity as her father’s health declined in the late 1990s. Her first recordings after his death in December 2000 were collaborations with other artists, including Bob Dylan and Los Lobos. Her duet with Dylan, “
I Have Learned to Do Without You,” but it was the Staple Singers’ string of Top 40 hits in the 1970s that made Staples and her family true pop stars.The Staple Singers hit the Top 40 eight times between 1971 and 1975, including two No. 1 singles, "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again," and a No. 2 single "Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?"
Staples made her first solo foray while at Epic Records with The Staple Singers releasing a lone single "Crying in the Chapel" to little fanfare in the late 1960s. However, Staples' solo albums of the late 1970s and ’80s did not fare well as she experimented unsuccessfully with disco and electro-pop. Time Waits for No One (1989) and The Voice (1993), despite critics’ praise, also failed to prosper, and Staples’s struggle to find a suitable outlet for her music continued. In 1996 she recorded Spirituals and Gospel: Dedicated to Mahalia Jackson in honor of Jackson, a close friend and role model. Staples curtailed her musical activity as her father’s health declined in the late 1990s. Her first recordings after his death in December 2000 were collaborations with other artists, including Bob Dylan and Los Lobos. Her duet with Dylan, “
Gonna Change My Way of Thinking” (2003), was nominated for a Grammy Award.
In 2004 Staples returned to the studio to record Have a Little Faith as a tribute to her father, whose influence—musical, parental, and spiritual—was everywhere evident on the album. Included on it was Staples’s rendition of “
Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” a favorite of her father’s, as well as “
Pops Recipe,” which incorporated in its lyrics biographical details from the elder Staples’ life and cherished examples of his fatherly advice. Have a Little Faith was a surprise hit, and it won the W.C. Handy awards for best blues album and best soul blues album. Staples also received the award for best female soul blues artist in 2005. These awards were her first as a solo performer. In 2005 the smoky-voiced Staples was also nominated for a Grammy Award for best gospel performance for her duet with Dr. John, “Lay My Burden Down” (2004), and she accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy on behalf of the Staple Singers.
Her return to form was further confirmed by We’ll Never Turn Back (2007). Featuring guest performances by Ry Cooder and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, this collection of reinvented gospel classics played brilliantly to the strengths of Staples’s voice and Cooder’s guitar. Although her live performances were legendary, she had never released a concert album prior to Hope at the Hideout (2008), recorded at a small venue in her hometown of Chicago. Staples' set list, grounded in civil rights anthems and freedom songs, could function as a sort of short course in African American history over the previous half century, and the concert album’s title, which echoed one of Barack Obama's presidential campaign slogans, and its release date (November 4, 2008, the day of the presidential election) indicate that Staples considered herself a witness to history.
In 2010 Staples released You Are Not Alone, a collection of gospel standards and new songs that was produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. It was a critical success, and the following year Staples' long Grammy drought finally came to an end when You Are Not Alone was awarded the Grammy Award for best Americana album. She subsequently recorded the albums One True Vine (2013; also produced by Tweedy) and Livin’ on a High Note (2016). A rendition of Blind Lemon Jefferson's “
*****See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,” from Staples’ 2015 EP Your Good Fortune, won a Grammy for best American roots performance.
*Delbert Tibbs, who was wrongfully convicted of murder but was later exonerated and became an anti-death penalty activist, was born in Shelby, Mississippi (June 19).
Delbert Tibbs (b. June 19, 1939, Shelby, Mississippi - d. November 23, 2013, Chicago, Illinois) was an American man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and rape in 1974 and sentenced to death. He was later exonerated and became a writer and anti-death penalty activist. He died on November 23, 2013.
Tibbs was born in Mississippi and grew up in Chicago. He attended the Chicago Theological Seminary from 1970 to 1972. In 1974, he was hitchhiking in Florida when he was wrongfully implicated in a crime for which he would receive the death penalty. That year, a 27-year-old man and a 17-year-old female were violently attacked near Fort Myers, Florida. The man was murdered and the young woman raped. She reported that they had been picked up while hitchhiking by a black man who shot her boyfriend dead and then beat and raped her, leaving her unconscious by the side of the road. Tibbs was stopped by police some 220 miles north of Fort Meyers and questioned about the crime. The police took his picture, but as he did not fit the victim's description of the perpetrator, did not arrest him. However, the photograph was sent to Fort Meyers and the victim identified him as the attacker. A judge then issued a warrant for Tibbs' arrest. He was picked up in Mississippi two weeks later and sent to Florida.
Though Tibbs had an alibi, he was indicted for the crimes. During the trial, the prosecution supplemented the victim's identification with testimony from a jailhouse informant who claimed Tibbs had confessed to the crime. The all-white jury convicted Tibbs of murder and rape and he was sentenced to death.
After the trial, the informant recanted his testimony, saying he had fabricated his account hoping for leniency in his own rape case. The Florida Supreme Court remanded the case and reversed the decision on the grounds that the verdict was not supported by the evidence. Tibbs was released in January 1977. In 1982, the Lee County State Attorney dismissed all charges, ending the chance of a retrial.
In November 1976, Pete Seeger wrote and recorded the anti-death penalty song "Delbert Tibbs."
A portion of Tibbs' story is featured in the play The Exonerated. On February 14, 2011 Tibbs, along with fellow exonerees and anti-death penalty activists, spoke with Illinois Governor Pat Quinn about repealing the death penalty in their state. A month later, on March 14, 2011, the death penalty was repealed in Illinois.
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Quincy Thomas Troupe, Jr. (b. July 22, 1939, St. Louis, Missouri) was the son of Negro League baseball catcher Quincy Trouppe (who added a second "P" to the family name while playing in Mexico to accommodate the Spanish pronunciation "Trou-pay"). As a teenager in 1955, he recalled hearing Miles Davis at a St. Louis, Missouri fish joint, where some fellow patrons identified the 78 rpm juke box record as "Donna" which was Davis' first recorded composition. (The record is most likely to have been the Charlie Parker Quintet session recorded for Savoy Records, May 8, 1947).
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*John Torres, an artist, was born in this year.
John Torres studied at the Art Students League between 1959 and 1963 under Frank Reilly and John Hovannes. Torres showed remarkable gifts as a sculptor, mastering techniques in metal, wax (Samari), bronze (Horse Sketch) and plaster (The Monument). Torres' sculptures are never abstract, but do give the appearance of being recovered fragments from some ancient civilization, being recovered fragments from some ancient civilization. He has successful one-man shows in New York City and devoted much of his time to running an artists' workshop in the Henry Street Settlement in New York.
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*Quincy Troupe, a poet and writer best known for being the biographer of Miles Davis, was born in St. Louis, Missouri (July 22).
Quincy Thomas Troupe, Jr. (b. July 22, 1939, St. Louis, Missouri) was the son of Negro League baseball catcher Quincy Trouppe (who added a second "P" to the family name while playing in Mexico to accommodate the Spanish pronunciation "Trou-pay"). As a teenager in 1955, he recalled hearing Miles Davis at a St. Louis, Missouri fish joint, where some fellow patrons identified the 78 rpm juke box record as "Donna" which was Davis' first recorded composition. (The record is most likely to have been the Charlie Parker Quintet session recorded for Savoy Records, May 8, 1947).
In his book Miles and Me he recalls the experience:
As a young man Troupe was athletic and attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship. However, after his first year he quit and subsequently joined the United States Army, where he was stationed in France and played on the Army basketball team. While in France he had a chance encounter with the noted French Existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, who recommended that Troupe try his hand at poetry.
When he returned to civilian life, Troupe moved to Los Angeles where he became a regular presence at the Watts Writers Workshop and began working in a more jazz-based style. It was on a tour with the Watts group that he first began his academic life as a teacher. The Watts Writers Workshop was located in a building that also had a theater, allowing members to do readings, workshops, plays and presentations. It was a meeting point for many in the Black Power, Black Arts and civil rights movements and, through it, Troupe met many individuals involved in other cities including Ishmael Reed and James Baldwin. In 1968, he edited the anthology, Watts Poets: A Book of New Poetry and Essays.
Troupe's work is associated with Black Arts Movement writers such as Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Wanda Coleman, Haki Madhubuti and Ismael Reed, who were also friends. Their work was diverse but was strongly informed by world literature and jazz music. Some time later it emerged that the Workshop had been a target of the covert FBI counterintelligence program COINTELPRO, and that the Workshop, along with its theater were burned to the ground in 1973 by the FBI informant and infiltrator, Darthard Perry (a.k.a. Ed Riggs). It also emerged that Riggs had not only been sabotaging equipment at the Workshop but also used his association with it to infiltrate the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panthers, and numerous other organizations that promoted black culture, ultimately being instrumental in their demise.
Throughout the 1970s, Troupe lived in New York, teaching at the College of Staten Island. During that time he was a regular on the poetry circuit, performing alone or in groups around the country.
In 1985, Spin magazine hired Troupe to write an exclusive two-part interview with Miles Davis, which led Simon & Schuster to contract with him as co-author for Davis's autobiography.
Miles: the Autobiography was published in 1990 and won an American Book Award for the authors, garnering them numerous positive reviews and accolades.
From 1991 to 2003 Troupe was professor of Caribbean and American literature and creative writing at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in La Jolla, California.
On June 11, 2002, Troupe was appointed California's poet laureate by then Governor Gray Davis. A background check related to the new political appointment revealed that Troupe had, in fact, never possessed a degree from Grambling. He attended for only two semesters in 1957–58 and then dropped out. After admitting that he had not earned a degree, he made the decision to resign, rather have it become a political issue for the Democratic Governor. As a consequence, he resigned from the poet laureate's position in October 2002 and retired from his post at UCSD.
Shortly after the controversy, Troupe moved back to New York City.
The year 2006 saw the publishing of his collaboration with self-made millionaire Chris Gardner on the latter's autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness. The book served as the inspiration for a film of the same name later that year starring Will Smith.
Other notable works by Troupe include James Baldwin: The Legacy (1989) and Miles and Me: A Memoir of Miles Davis (2000). He also edited Giant Talk: An Anthology of Third World Writing (1975) and is a founding editor of Confrontation: A Journal of Third World Literature and American Rag.
*Tina Turner, a Grammy winning rhythm and blues, soul and rock singer best known for her hit "What's Love Got to Do with It?", was born in Nutbush, Tennessee. As Tina Turner, she would have a successful R&B career as lead singer in the Ike and Tina Turner Revue and, later, on her own as a solo artist.
Tina Turner, original name Anna Mae Bullock (b. November 26, 1939, Nutbush, Tennessee), was born into a sharecropping family in rural Tennessee. She began singing as a teenager and, after moving to St. Louis, Missouri, immersed herself in the local rhythm-and-blues scene. She met Ike Turner at a performance by his band, the Kings of Rhythm, in 1956, and soon became part of the act. She began performing as Tina Turner, and her electric stage presence quickly made her the centerpiece of the show. The ensemble, which toured as the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, was renowned for its live performances but struggled to find recording success. That changed in 1960, when “
A Fool in Love” hit the pop charts, and a string of hit singles followed. Ike and Tina were married in 1962, although the date is subject to some speculation (during the couple’s divorce proceedings in 1977, Ike claimed that the two were never legally married). The Phil Spector-produced album River Deep - Mountain High (1966) was a hit in Europe, and its title track is arguably the high point of Spector’s “wall of sound” production style, but it sold poorly in the United States. Ike and Tina’s final hits as a couple were the cover version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's “
Proud Mary” (1971) and “
Nutbush City Limits” (1973).
Tina divorced Ike in 1978, alleging years of physical abuse and infidelity. After a series of guest appearances on the albums of other artists, she released her debut solo album, Private Dancer, in 1984. It was a triumph, both critically and commercially, garnering three Grammy Awards and selling more than 20 million copies worldwide. She followed her musical success with a role in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and she wrote her autobiography, I, Tina (1986; adapted as the film What’s Love Got to Do with It, 1993). Later albums include Break Every Rule (1986), Foreign Affair (1989), and Wildest Dreams (1996). Her greatest-hits compilation All the Best was released in 2004, and Turner continued touring into the 21st century. Ike and Tina were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
After residing in Switzerland for a number of years, Turner became a Swiss citizen in 2013 and shortly thereafter submitted the paperwork to relinquish her United States citizenship.
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William Henry Webb, often known as Chick Webb (b. February 10, 1905, Baltimore, Maryland – d. June 16, 1939, Baltimore, Maryland) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. From childhood, he suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, leaving him with short stature and a badly deformed spine causing him to appear hunchbacked. The idea of playing an instrument was suggested by his doctor to "loosen up" his bones. He supported himself as a newspaper boy to save enough money to buy drums, and first played professionally at age 11.
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Clarence Williams III (b. August 21, 1939, New York City, New York) began pursuing an acting career after spending two years in the United States Air Force. He first appeared on Broadway in The Long Dream (1960), and received a Theatre World Award and Tony nomination for the three-person play Slow Dance on the Killing Ground (1964). Continuing his work on stage, he appeared in Walk in Darkness (1963), Sarah and the Sax (1964), Doubletalk (1964), and King John. He also served as artist-in-residence at Brandeis University in 1966.
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*William Webb, a jazz and swing music drummer and band leader, died in Baltimore, Maryland (June 16).
William Henry Webb, often known as Chick Webb (b. February 10, 1905, Baltimore, Maryland – d. June 16, 1939, Baltimore, Maryland) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. From childhood, he suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, leaving him with short stature and a badly deformed spine causing him to appear hunchbacked. The idea of playing an instrument was suggested by his doctor to "loosen up" his bones. He supported himself as a newspaper boy to save enough money to buy drums, and first played professionally at age 11.
At the age of 17 he moved to New York City and by 1926 was leading his own band in Harlem. Jazz drummer Tommy Benford said he gave Webb drum lessons when he first reached New York.
He alternated between band tours and residencies at New York City clubs through the late 1920s. In 1931, his band became the house band at the Savoy Ballroom. He became one of the best-regarded bandleaders and drummers of the new "swing" style. Drummer Buddy Rich cited Webb's powerful technique and virtuoso performances as heavily influential on his own drumming, and even referred to Webb as "the daddy of them all". Webb was unable to read music, and instead memorized the arrangements played by the band and conducted from a platform in the center. He used custom-made pedals, goose-neck cymbal holders, a 28-inch bass drum and other percussion instruments. Although his band was not as influential and revered in the long term, it was feared in the battle of the bands. The Savoy often featured "Battle of the Bands" where Webb's band would compete with other top bands (such as the Benny Goodman Orchestra or the Count Basie Orchestra) from opposing bandstands. By the end of the night's battles the dancers seemed always to have voted Chick's band as the best. As a result, Webb was crowned the first "King of Swing". Notably, Webb lost to Duke Ellington in 1937. Although a judge declared Webb's band the official winner in 1938 over Count Basie's, and Basie himself said he was just relieved to come away from the contest without embarrassing himself, surviving musicians continued to dispute the ruling for decades to follow.
Webb married Martha Loretta Ferguson (also known as "Sallyee"), and in 1935 he began featuring a teenage Ella Fitzgerald as vocalist. Together Chick and Ella would electrify the Swing Era of jazz with hits such as "A-Tisket a Tasket," which was composed by Van Alexander at Fitzgerald's request.
In November 1938, Webb's health began to decline. For a time, however, he continued to play, refusing to give up touring so that his band could remain employed during the Great Depression. He disregarded his own discomfort and fatigue, which often found him passing out from physical exhaustion after finishing sets. Finally, he had a major operation at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1939. William Henry "Chick" Webb died from spinal tuberculosis on June 16, 1939, in Baltimore. Reportedly his last words were, "I'm sorry, I've got to go." He was roughly 34 years old.
*Clarence Williams III, an actor best known for his role as Linc Hayes in the television show The Mod Squad, was born in New York City, New York.
Clarence Williams III (b. August 21, 1939, New York City, New York) began pursuing an acting career after spending two years in the United States Air Force. He first appeared on Broadway in The Long Dream (1960), and received a Theatre World Award and Tony nomination for the three-person play Slow Dance on the Killing Ground (1964). Continuing his work on stage, he appeared in Walk in Darkness (1963), Sarah and the Sax (1964), Doubletalk (1964), and King John. He also served as artist-in-residence at Brandeis University in 1966.
Williams' breakout role was as undercover cop Linc Hayes on the highly popular counterculture TV cop series The Mod Squad (1968), along with fellow relative unknowns Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton. After the series ended in 1973, he worked in a variety of genres on stage and screen, from comedy (I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and Half-Backed ) to sci-fi (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and drama (Purple Rain).
Spanning over forty years, his career includes the role of Prince's tormented father, who was also a musician in Purple Rain (1984), a recurring role in the surreal TV series Twin Peaks (1990), a good cop in Deep Cover (1992), a rioter in the mini-series Against the Wall (1994), and Wesley Snipes' chemically dependent Dad in Sugar Hill (1993). Other TV roles include Hill Street Blues, the Canadian cult classic The Littlest Hobo, Miami Vice, The Highwayman, Burn Notice, Everybody Hates Chris, Justified, and Law & Order. Williams in , movies such as 52 Pick-Up, Life, The Cool World, Deep Cover, Tales from the Hood, Half-Baked, King: A Filmed Record ... Montgomery to Memphis, Hoodlum, Frogs for Snakes, Starstruck, The General's Daughter, Reindeer Games, Impostor, The Legend of 1900, and Purple Rain. He also played a supporting role as George Wallace's fictional African American butler and caretaker in the 1997 TNT movie George Wallace.
From 2003 to 2007, Williams had a recurring role as Philby Cross in the Mystery Woman movie series on the Hallmark Channel. He appeared in all eleven movies alongside Kellie Martin. In the first and the seventh (Mystery Woman: At First Sight) movies, he reunited with his Mod Squad co-star Michael Cole.
He was married to and divorced from actress Gloria Foster, the Oracle in The Matrix (1999) and The Matrix Reloaded (2003).
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*Paul Winfield, a film and television actor best known for his role in the 1972 film Sounder, was born in Los Angeles, California (May 22).
Paul Winfield, in full Paul Edward Winfield (b. May 22, 1941, Los Angeles, California —d. March 7, 2004, Los Angeles, California) attended high school in Los Angeles, where he first began acting. After attending several colleges, he left the University of California at Los Angeles just six credits short of a bachelor’s degree. He then worked as a contract player at Columbia Pictures before taking the role of Diahann Carroll’s boyfriend in the television sitcom Julia (1968–71). In the film Sounder, Winfield played a sharecropper struggling to take care of his family. His other roles included those of baseball player Roy Campanella in the TV film It’s Good to Be Alive (1974); Martin Luther King, Jr., in the TV miniseries King (1978); and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the TV film Strange Justice (1999). Winfield’s performance as a federal judge in a guest appearance on the TV series Picket Fences (1992–96; Winfield appeared in two episodes, 1994) won him an Emmy Award in 1995. Winfield was also known to science fiction fans for his memorable roles in The Terminator, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), The Terminator (1984), and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1991).
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*Richard "Popcorn" Wylie, a pianist, bandleader, songwriter, singer and record producer best known for playing piano on the Motown hits "Shop Around" and "Please Mr. Postman", was born in Detroit, Michigan (June 6).
Richard Wayne Wylie (b. June 6, 1939, Detroit, Michigan – d. September 7, 2008, Detroit, Michigan), often known as Popcorn Wylie, was influential in the early years of Motown Records and was later known for his work on many records in the Northern soul genre.
Wylie was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a musical family, and learned piano. He gained the nickname "Popcorn" through his habit of popping quickly out of the football team's huddle at Northwestern High School. While at school, he formed a group, Popcorn and the Mohawks, which also included later Motown musicians James Jamerson on bass and Clifford Mack on drums. The band performed at local venues, where Wylie would front the band wearing a homemade Mohawk headdress.
In 1960 he released a solo single, "Pretty Girl", on the local Northern label. He also performed at a Detroit club, Twenty Grand, where he met fellow musician Robert Bateman who was working as an engineer at Berry Gordy's fledgling Motown label. Wylie then began recording for Motown, releasing three unsuccessful singles as Popcorn and the Mohawks: "Custer's Last Man" / "Shimmy Gully", followed by a cover of Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)", and then "Real Good Lovin'". He also recorded with Janie Bradford as a duo, Janard, and began working as a backing musician. He played piano on The Miracles' 1961 hit "Shop Around" and The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman", and additionally worked with The Contours, Marvin Gaye, Marv Johnson, The Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas and Mary Wells. He was Motown's first head of A&R, and served as the band leader for the first Motortown Revue tour in 1962.
In 1962 he left Motown after a disagreement with Gordy, who failed to mention him in his later autobiography. Wylie signed with Epic Records, releasing four singles between 1962 and 1964 on which he was reputedly backed by Sun Ra and members of his Arkestra. He later freelanced as a songwriter, producer, and session player for various local labels, including SonBert, Ric-Tic, Correc-tone, Continental and Golden World. He also formed his own labels, Pameline (an amalgamation of his daughters' names) and SoulHawk, in 1966. During this period he worked extensively with singers Edwin Starrr and J. J. Barnes, and co-wrote Jamo Thomas' minor hit "I Spy (For the FBI)." Several of the records with which he was involved, including "The Cool Off" by the Detroit Executives, first issued in 1967, and "Nothing No Sweeter Than Love" by Carl Carlton, later became favorites of the Northern soul scene in the United Kingdom. He also co-wrote The Platters' 1967 hit, "With This Ring".
He began recording again, under the name Popcorn Wylie, in 1968, releasing "Rosemary, What Happened?" - another Northern soul favorite - on the Karen label, and "Move Over Babe (Here Comes Henry)" on Carla. In 1971, he briefly returned to Motown, and released his most successful solo single, "Funky Rubber Band", on their subsidiary Soul label. An instrumental, it reached No. 40 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 109 on the United States pop chart. He recorded an album, Extrasensory Perception, for ABC Records in 1974, working with arrangers McKinley Jackson and Gene Page. Two singles were released from the album in 1975, "Lost Time" and "Georgia's After Hours".
For some years, Wylie was unaware of the popularity of his earlier records on the United Kingdom Northern soul scene, and he reportedly allowed his children to play frisbee with highly collectable singles he had produced and released. In the mid-1980s, he finally travelled to the United Kingdom to promote his work, helping to put together compilation albums and working with producer Ian Levine. He recorded "Love is My Middle Name" and "See This Man in Love" for Levine's Motorcity label, and co-wrote songs for fellow Motown veterans The Contours and The Elgins, among others. A selection of his recordings on the Pameline label was issued on a compilation, Popcorn's Detroit Soul Party, in 2002, and he also took part in a 2003 documentary, The Strange World of Northern Soul.
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