2016 Obituaries of Note

[PeoplePower]

Matt Roberts, former guitarist of 3 Doors Down, dies of apparent overdose...

Founder and former guitarist of 3 Doors Down dies at 38
Sunday 21st August, 2016. - Former 3 Doors Down guitarist, Matt Roberts, has died of an apparent drug overdose, reports TMZ.

Wow,only 38,yikes
That;s the new hip music,too
Not no Brad Delps n Co.
here's this guy's stuff (I like it)

[waltky]

Chess Records co-founder Phil Chess dies at 95...

Phil Chess, Pioneering Blues and Rock Exec, Dead at 95
20 Oct.`16 - Prolific record producer and Chess Records co-founder helped introduced Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Etta James to world

Phil Chess, who co-founded the legendary label Chess Records with his brother Leonard and helped make Chicago the epicenter of the blues, died Wednesday at his home in Tucson, Arizona. He was 95. Chess' nephew Craig Glicken confirmed his uncle's death to the Chicago Sun-Times, adding that the former record label executive was in good health. Born Fiszel Czyż in Poland in 1921, Chess' family immigrated to Chicago – and changed their last name to Chess – in 1928. ("We came from Poland in 1928. That was blues all the time," Chess once told Vanity Fair.) After a stint in the army, in 1950, Chess joined his brother Leonard – who purchased a stake of Aristocrat Records – in the music business. Their label was eventually renamed Chess Records.

The Chess brothers' specialty was blues and R&B – "race music" as it was called at the time – with Chess Records signing legendary artists like Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Sonny Boy Williamson, Etta James, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and Buddy Guy. The Chess brothers often served as producers for their artists' recordings. Following news of Phil Chess' death, Guy told the Sun-Times, "Phil and Leonard Chess were cuttin' the type of music nobody else was paying attention to – Muddy, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy, Jimmy Rogers, I could go on and on – and now you can take a walk down State Street today and see a portrait of Muddy that’s 10 stories tall. The Chess Brothers had a lot to do with that. They started Chess Records and made Chicago what it is today, the Blues capital of the world. I'll always be grateful for that."

The music that was released through Chess Records – Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven," Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats' Ike Turner-penned "Rocket 88," Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy" and "Rollin' Stone," Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley" and "I'm a Man" (released on the Chess brothers' Checker Records), Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning" and countless more blues classics – became the backbone of what would eventually become rock and roll. "The Blues had a baby, and they named it rock and roll," Waters once said. In 1963, the Chess brothers purchased WVON, a Chicago radio station dedicated to African-Americans, to get more airplay for their label's songs.

Chess Records' catalog also had a crucial impact on the other side of the Atlantic. The Rolling Stones, named after that Waters track, would cover many of the Chess artists' tracks over their career, and named their instrumental "2120 S. Michigan Avenue" after Chess Records' Chicago headquarters; the location has since been registered as a Chicago landmark. In 1970, the Rolling Stones would launch their own label – Rolling Stone Records – with Leonard Chess' son Marshall at the helm. "I think that the Stones understood a certain sexual energy that was in Chess Records music and amplified that into their own music and turned it into their own music," Marshall Chess told WGBH in 1995. "To me, that was the essence of Chess that I got from the Stones. There was something, there was a certain kind of Chess music that was sexy. 'I'm A Man' you know and those kind of things. And I think the Stones definitely picked up to that and built on it and made it into their own sound and took it beyond it."

The story behind the Chess brothers' label inspired the film Cadillac Records, with Adrien Brody playing Leonard Chess in the film. Leonard died in 1969 at the age of 52, just months after Chess Records was sold to General Recorded Tape. In 1972, three years after Leonard Chess' death, the label scored their first Hot 100 Number One single with Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling." Soon after, Phil Chess retired from the music industry. For their contributions to the genre, the Chess brothers were inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1995. Phil Chess was also the recipient of the Recording Academy's Trustees Award in 2013.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...-at-95-w445639

[waltky]

Famed American anti-war activist Tom Hayden has died aged 76...

Tom Hayden, famed anti-Vietnam war activist, dies aged 76
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 - Tom Hayden, progressive activist and a prominent figure in the US anti-Vietnam war movement, dies after a lengthy illness.

Hayden died in his home in Santa Monica "after a lengthy illness", the Los Angeles Times reports. He was a member of the "Chicago seven" charged with conspiracy over anti-Vietnam war protests in 1968 and eventually acquitted. Hayden later served in the California state assembly and Senate for nearly two decades. He was married to actress Jane Fonda between 1973 and 1990. Born in Michigan in 1939, he became an activist during his time at the University of Michigan, where he helped to found Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). While there, he wrote a policy document called the Port Huron Statement, which he styled the "agenda for a generation".

Mr Hayden and the SDS went on to become a major influence on the 1960s protest movement, particularly against the Vietnam war. "Rarely, if ever, in American history has a generation begun with higher ideals and experienced greater trauma than those who lived fully the short time from 1960 to 1968,'' he wrote in the essay Streets of Chicago. In 1968, Mr Hayden was part of a controversial anti-war demonstration in Chicago, timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. The protest turned violent, with eight people - including Mr Hayden - charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite a riot.

In this Dec. 6, 1973 file photo, political activist Tom Hayden, husband of Jane Fonda, tells newsmen in Los Angeles that he believes public support was partially responsible for the decision not to send him and others of the Chicago 7 to jail for contempt.

The so-called Chicago seven trial - originally the Chicago eight, before one defendant was tried separately - ran for years, with appeals and retrials. Mr Hayden was eventually cleared of all charges. In 1973, he married actress Jane Fonda, who was herself an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War. She was internationally famous and wealthy, while he was still seen in some quarters as an anti-establishment troublemaker. He would go on to reinvent himself in the coming decades, moving away from the image of a long-haired student protester. He turned his attention to mainstream politics in the late 1970s, earning himself a place in the California State Assembly in 1982. A decade later, shortly after his divorce from Fonda, he moved on to the California Senate. He also became a prolific writer of books and essays, and served as a columnist for several outlets.

Fifty years after he wrote the Port Huron statement, about a generation "looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit", he wrote that the concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite was a "mountain untouched" . Writing in The Guardian in 2012, he called the Occupy Wall Street protests a "new force in the world". "The Occupy movement, and kindred spirits from the Middle East to China, is driven by young people who feel unrepresented by the institutions, disenfranchised economically, and threatened by an environmental catastrophe," he said. "The direct action movement of the early 1960s was similar in nature." Hayden married actress Barbara Williams in 1993, and had a son, Liam.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37749127

See also:

First woman to scale Everest peak dies at age 77
Oct. 22, 2016 -- Junko Tabei, who in 1975 became the first woman to successfullly scale Mount Everest, died at age 77, her family said.

Tabei, of Japan, scaled Everest at age 35, climbing all of the world's highest peaks by 1992 including Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Denali in Alaska. Her last ascent, of Mount Fuji, was in July with a group of high school students.

In 2012, she told The Japan Times she was proud of her accomplishment, which was widely seen as a push forward for the women's movement in Japan. "There was never a question in my mind that I wanted to climb that mountain, no matter what other people said," she said.

Tabei was diagnosed with abdominal cancer four years ago and died in a hospital.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-Ne...?spt=sec&or=tn

[waltky]

`60's Singer Bobby Vee passes at 73...

Bobby Vee: 1960s pop singer dies aged 73
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 - Bobby Vee, best known for 1960s hits including Rubber Ball and Take Good Care of my Baby, dies at the age of 73.

Vee released more than 25 albums during his career, retiring in 2011 after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Vee's son Jeff Velline said the singer died peacefully surrounded by family on Monday. It was "the end of a long hard road", Mr Velline said. He described his father as "a person who brought joy all over the world", adding: "That was his job." Vee's big break came about in 1959 at the age of 15 when he filled in for Buddy Holly after the singer's death in a plane crash. Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were also killed in the accident in Iowa, along with the pilot, Roger Peterson.

A call went out for local acts to replace Holly at his scheduled show at the Moorhead National Guard Armory. Vee and his band, which had only formed two weeks previously, volunteered. Vee, born Robert Velline, also gave a young Bob Dylan his start. Dylan played briefly with Vee's band and he was the one who suggested Velline change his last name to Vee. Bobby Vee and the Shadows were signed in autumn 1959 and Vee had his first hit in the Billboard charts in 1960 with Devil or Angel.

A string of hits followed, including The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Come Back When You Grow Up, Please Don't Ask about Barbara and Punish Her. Vee and his wife Karen were married for more than 50 years and had four children. She died of kidney failure in 2015, aged 71. Vee had been in a care home near Minneapolis for just over a year and had been receiving hospice care before his death, Mr Velline said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37756170

See also:

Pete Burns: Dead or Alive singer dies aged 57
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 - Dead or Alive singer Pete Burns dies aged 57 after suffering a cardiac arrest, his management says.

A statement on Twitter said it was with "greatest sadness" that it had to break the "tragic news" that Burns died suddenly on Sunday. Burns had a hit with You Spin Me Round in 1985 and appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006. The management statement said: "All of his family and friends are devastated by the loss of our special star." It continued: "He was a true visionary, a beautiful talented soul, and he will be missed by all who loved and appreciated everything he was and all of the wonderful memories he has left us with."

'Great true eccentric'

Burns appeared on reality television shows Celebrity Wife Swap and The Body Shocking Show in recent years. Politician George Galloway, who was on Celebrity Big Brother with Burns, tweeted: "Sad to hear of the demise of Pete Burns. He was a cross between Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker. You don't get more brilliant than that. RIP". Stars paid tribute to the singer on Twitter, with Boy George saying: "Tearful about the passing of @PeteBurnsICON he was one of our great true eccentrics and such a big part of my life! Wow. Hard to believe!"

Celebrity Big Brother presenter Davina McCall said: "So so sad to hear about Pete Burns... we partied hard in the 90s... RIP Pete x" Soft Cell musician Marc Almond tweeted: "We've had some mad times with Pete but he was a one off creation, a fabulous, fantastic, brilliant creature and always sweet to me." Ordinary Boys frontman Preston, who also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother with Burns, said: "Heartbroken to hear about Pete Burns. He was a true punk rocker and one of the kindest hearts I've ever know. Gutted."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37755445

[Mark III]

One of the great pop songs of all time

[waltky]

Another of the 'Greatest Generation' passes on...

Audley Coulthurst of Famed Tuskegee Airmen Dies in NYC at 92
Oct 31, 2016 — A former member of the pioneering black aviation group the Tuskegee Airmen has died. Audley Coulthurst was 92.

Audra Coulthurst says her father died Thursday at a Veterans Affairs facility in Brooklyn after suffering a cardiac arrest. Coulthurst enlisted in the Army in 1942 and became one of the first black military pilots in the U.S. Although Tuskegee Airmen faced discrimination in a segregated military, the fighter squadrons were among the most respected in World War II.

Tuskegee Airmen, including Audley Coulthurst pictured left, are honored by the New York Assembly during a ceremony in the Assembly Chamber at the Capitol on June 16, 2016, in Albany, N.Y.

Audra Coulthurst says after the war her father became a certified public account and served as controller of the National Urban League. He also is survived by his wife, Matilda Coulthurst, and a son, Jeffrey Coulthurst.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...es-nyc-92.html

[Don]

Hand salute for Audley Coulthurst. R.I.P.

[waltky]

Janet Reno dead @ 78...

Janet Reno, former US attorney general, has died
Nov 7,`16 -- Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general and the epicenter of several political storms during the Clinton administration, has died. She was 78.

Reno died early Monday from complications of Parkinson's disease, her goddaughter Gabrielle D'Alemberte said. D'Alemberte said Reno spent her final days at home in Miami surrounded by family and friends. Reno, a former Miami prosecutor who famously told reporters "I don't do spin," served nearly eight years as attorney general under President Bill Clinton, the longest stint in a century. One of the administration's most recognizable and polarizing figures, Reno faced criticism early in her tenure for the deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, where sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers perished. She was known for deliberating slowly, publicly and in a typically blunt manner. Reno frequently told the public "the buck stops with me," borrowing the mantra from President Harry S. Truman.

After Waco, Reno figured into some of the controversies and scandals that marked the Clinton administration, including Whitewater, Filegate, bungling at the FBI laboratory, Monica Lewinsky, alleged Chinese nuclear spying and questionable campaign financing in the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election. In the spring of 2000, Reno enraged her hometown's Cuban-American community when she authorized the armed seizure of 5-year-old Elian. The boy was taken from the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives so he could be returned to his father in Cuba. After leaving Washington, Reno returned to Florida and made an unsuccessful run for Florida governor in 2002 but lost in a Democratic primary marred by voting problems. The campaign ended a public career that started amid humble beginnings. Born July 21, 1938, Janet Wood Reno was the daughter of two newspaper reporters and the eldest of four siblings. She grew up on the edge of the Everglades in a cypress and brick homestead built by her mother and returned there after leaving Washington. Her late brother Robert Reno was a longtime columnist for Newsday on Long Island.

After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in chemistry, Reno became one of 16 women in Harvard Law School's Class of 1963. Reno, who stood over 6 feet tall, later said she wanted to become a lawyer "because I didn't want people to tell me what to do." In 1993, Clinton tapped her to become the first woman to lead the Justice Department after his first two choices - also women - were withdrawn because both had hired illegal immigrants as nannies. Reno was 54. "It's an extraordinary experience, and I hope I do the women of America proud," Reno said after she won confirmation. Clinton said the vote might be "the only vote I carry 98-0 this year." A little more than a month of taking office, however, Reno became embroiled in controversy with the raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco. The standoff had started even before Reno was confirmed as attorney general. On Feb. 28, 1993, agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms made a surprise raid on the compound, trying to execute a search warrant. But during the raid gunfire erupted, killing four agents and six members of the religious sect.

That led to a 51-day standoff, ending April 19, 1993, when the complex caught fire and burned to the ground. The government claimed the Davidians committed suicide, shooting themselves and setting the fire. Survivors said the blaze was started by tear gas rounds fired into the compound by government tanks, and that agents shot at some who tried to flee. Reno had authorized the use of the tear gas to end the standoff and later called the day the worst of her life. "It was a dangerous situation," Reno said of the incident during a 2005 lecture at Duke University. "The tragedy is that we will never know what was the right thing to do." Things got no easier after Waco. In 1995 Reno was diagnosed with Parkinson's after noticing a trembling in her left hand. She said from the beginning that the diagnosis, which she announced during a weekly news conference, would not impair her job performance. And critics - both Republicans and Democrats - did not give her a pass because of it.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...11-07-04-26-21

[waltky]

Leonard Cohen dies at 82...

Leonard Cohen, rock music's poetic visionary, dies at age 82
November 10, 2016 - Leonard Cohen, rock music's man of letters whose songs fused religious imagery with themes of redemption and sexual desire, earning him critical and popular acclaim, has died at age 82, a statement on his Facebook page said.

"It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away," a statement on the Facebook page said. "We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries." The statement did not provide further details on Cohen's death, and representatives for the singer could not be reached immediately for comment. It said a memorial was planned in Los Angeles, where Cohen had lived for many years. "R.I.P. Leonard Cohen," singer-songwriter Carole King said on Twitter.

Singer Roseanne Cash echoed the lyrics from Cohen's song "Anthem" when she said in a tweet: "Leonard Cohen is dead. There's a crack in everything. No light yet." Cohen, a native of Quebec, was already a celebrated poet and novelist when he moved to New York in 1966 at age 31 to break into the music business. Before long, critics were comparing him to Bob Dylan for the lyrical force of his songwriting. Although he influenced many musicians and won many honors, including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Order of Canada, Cohen rarely made the pop music charts with his sometimes moody folk-rock.

But Cohen's most famous song, "Hallelujah," in which he invoked the biblical King David and drew parallels between physical love and a desire for spiritual connection, has been covered hundreds of times since he released it in 1984. "Hallelujah's" long road to mass appeal was matched by Cohen's own painstaking approach to writing it. He spent five years penning drafts, at one point banging his head on the floor of a hotel room in frustration.

THE SACRED AND PROFANE

[Don]