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Los Angeles Times...
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Public viewing scheduled for Etta James
January 25, 2012
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A public viewing will be held Friday in Inglewood for R&B great Etta James, who died last week at the age of 73, a family representative said.
The viewing will be from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Manchester Chapel at Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary, 3801 W. Manchester Blvd.
The Rev. Al Sharpton will lead a private memorial service for the singer Saturday.
—Phil Willon
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/arts/music/etta-james-singer-dies-at-73.html
The New York Times...
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Etta James, Powerful Voice Behind ‘At Last,’ Dies at 73
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PHOTO:
Etta James in the studio in Chicago with the Chess Records founder Phil Chess, left, and the producer Ralph Bass in 1960.
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By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: January 20, 2012
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Etta James, whose powerful, versatile and emotionally direct voice could enliven the raunchiest blues as well as the subtlest love songs, most indelibly in her signature hit, “At Last,” died Friday morning in Riverside, Calif. She was 73.
Her manager, Lupe De Leon, said that the cause was complications of leukemia. Ms. James, who died at Riverside Community Hospital, had been undergoing treatment for some time for a number of conditions, including leukemia and dementia. She also lived in Riverside.
Ms. James was not easy to pigeonhole. She is most often referred to as a rhythm and blues singer, and that is how she made her name in the 1950s with records like “Good Rockin’ Daddy.” She is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.
She was also comfortable, and convincing, singing pop standards, as she did in 1961 with “At Last,” which was written in 1941 and originally recorded by Glenn Miller’s orchestra. And among her four Grammy Awards (including a lifetime-achievement honor in 2003) was one for best jazz vocal performance, which she won in 1995 for the album “Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday.”
Regardless of how she was categorized, she was admired. Expressing a common sentiment, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that she had “one of the great voices in American popular music, with a huge range, a multiplicity of tones and vast reserves of volume.”
For all her accomplishments, Ms. James had an up-and-down career, partly because of changing audience tastes but largely because of drug problems. She developed a heroin habit in the 1960s; after she overcame it in the 1970s, she began using cocaine. She candidly described her struggles with addiction and her many trips to rehab in her autobiography, “Rage to Survive,” written with David Ritz (1995).
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles on Jan. 25, 1938. Her mother, Dorothy Hawkins, was 14 at the time; her father was long gone, and Ms. James never knew for sure who he was, although she recalled her mother telling her that he was the celebrated pool player Rudolf Wanderone, better known as Minnesota Fats. She was reared by foster parents and moved to San Francisco with her mother when she was 12.
She began singing at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles at 5 and turned to secular music as a teenager, forming a vocal group with two friends. She was 15 when she made her first record, “Roll With Me Henry,” which set her own lyrics to the tune of Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ recent hit “Work With Me Annie.” When some disc jockeys complained that the title was too suggestive, the name was changed to “The Wallflower,” although the record itself was not.
“The Wallflower” rose to No. 2 on the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1954. As was often the case in those days with records by black performers, a toned-down version was soon recorded by a white singer and found a wider audience: Georgia Gibbs’s version, with the title and lyric changed to “Dance With Me, Henry,” was a No. 1 pop hit in 1955. (Its success was not entirely bad news for Ms. James. She shared the songwriting royalties with Mr. Ballard and the bandleader and talent scout Johnny Otis, who had arranged for her recording session. (Mr. Otis died on Tuesday.)
In 1960 Ms. James was signed by Chess Records, the Chicago label that was home to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and other leading lights of black music. She quickly had a string of hits, including “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “Trust in Me” and “At Last,” which established her as Chess’s first major female star.
She remained with Chess well into the 1970s, reappearing on the charts after a long absence in 1967 with the funky and high-spirited “Tell Mama.” In the late ’70s and early ’80s she was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.
After decades of touring, recording for various labels and drifting in and out of the public eye, Ms. James found herself in the news in 2009 after Beyoncé Knowles recorded a version of “At Last” closely modeled on hers. (Ms. Knowles played Ms. James in the 2008 movie “Cadillac Records,” a fictionalized account of the rise and fall of Chess.) Ms. Knowles also performed “At Last” at an inaugural ball for President Obama in Washington.
When the movie was released, Ms. James had kind words for Ms. Knowles’s portrayal. But in February 2009, referring specifically to the Washington performance, she told an audience, “I can’t stand Beyoncé,” and threatened to “whip” the younger singer for singing “At Last.” She later said she had been joking, but she did add that she wished she had been invited to sing the song herself for the new president.
Ms. James’s survivors include her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills; two sons, Donto and Sametto James; and four grandchildren.
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Though her life had its share of troubles to the end — her husband and sons were locked in a long-running battle over control of her estate, which was resolved in her husband’s favor only weeks before her death — Ms. James said she wanted her music to transcend unhappiness rather than reflect it.
“A lot of people think the blues is depressing,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992, “but that’s not the blues I’m singing. When I’m singing blues, I’m singing life. People that can’t stand to listen to the blues, they’ve got to be phonies.”
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http://collegecandy.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/etta-james.jpg?w=600&h=337
.Los Angeles Times...
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Public viewing scheduled for Etta James
January... more
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Yes, we have some rain for the first time since the end of January. This contrary to what many people are thinking is not a bad thing. It used to be that San Francisco was a city with two kinds of weather, raining and gonna rain.Yes, we have some rain for the first time since the end of January. This contrary to... more
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May 10th, 2010
01:32 AM ET - CNN
Lena Horne dead at 92
Singer, dancer and actress Lena Horne died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday night, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Horne was 92.
She was one of the first African-Americans to sign a long-term movie contract with a major Hollywood studio when she joined MGM in 1942.
"I think the black boy that cleaned the shoes and me were the only two black people except the maids who were there working for the stars," Horne said in a CNN interview. "And it was very lonely, and I wasn't very happy."
Still, Horne said she was grateful that her World War II-era films - including "Cabin in the Sky" and "Stormy Weather" - were seen by black and white soldiers.
"But after I realized I would only go so far, I went on the stage," Horne said.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/05/10/alg_lena_horne.jpg
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Legendary singer, actress Lena Horne, who paved way for future black female superstars, dies at 92
BY Bill Hutchinson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Originally Published:Monday, May 10th 2010, 1:18 AM
Updated: Monday, May 10th 2010, 1:42 AM
Lena Horne in 1952. Horne, born in Brooklyn, began perfroming at the Cotton Club in Harlem when she was 16.
Daily News
Lena Horne in 1952. Horne, born in Brooklyn, began perfroming at the Cotton Club in Harlem when she was 16.
Legendary actress and singer Lena Horne, who paved the way for generations of black female superstars, died Sunday night. She was 92.
Horne died at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Born in Brooklyn, Horne began performing at the Cotton Club in Harlem when she was 16.
The Tony and Emmy Award-winning star got her big show business break in the early 1940s as the featured vocalist on a NBC's popular jazz series.
She recorded her first album in 1941 and went on to star in a string of musicals and TV variety shows.
An outspoken civil rights advocate, Horne said she was blacklisted for a time for her views.
She last appeared on the big screen in "The Wiz," the film version of the musical based on The Wizard of Oz."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2010/05/09/2010-05-09_lena_horne_who_paved_way_for_future_black_female_superstars_reportedly_dies_at_9.html#ixzz0nVTzwRccMay 10th, 2010
01:32 AM ET - CNN
Lena Horne dead at 92
Singer, dancer and... more
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I was inside and heard some thunder in the distance. I went outside and it was clear looking to the north, but when I looked south, I beheld a most impressive site. Giant white clouds like huge pillows were resting it seemed in the sky. However, to the west were these black ominous clouds moving quickly to the east engulfing the cotton candy like clouds. I was quiet amazed.
Enjoy this pleasant video with the song Arianna by artist Julianna playing in the background.I was inside and heard some thunder in the distance. I went outside and it was clear... more
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