VANITY PAGES: Vanity Pages Remembers

Gerald R. Ford, 93
1913-2006
Former President
38th president when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.

Godfather of Soul James Brown, 73
1933-2006
pneumonia

Brown's hit Say it Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud) became a civil rights anthem during the turbulent 1960s and he performed the song at Richard Nixon's inaugural in 1969

Gerald Levert 40
1966- 2006
American R&B singer
He passed away in his sleep
apparent heart attack.

Claydes Charles Smith, 57
1948-2006

Co-founder and lead guitarist of the group Kool & the Gang,
Smith, who was known as Charles Smith, wrote the hits Joanna and Take My Heart, and was a co-writer of others, including Celebration, Hollywood Swinging and Jungle Boogie.

Corey Lidle, 34
1972 – 2006
Plane crash
was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for seven different teams in his nine-season career, last playing for the New York Yankees.

Don Knotts, 81
1924-2006
Pulmonary/respiratory complications. (Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, the TV repairman in Pleasantville.)

Ruth Brown, 78
1928-2006

Cause of DeathComplications of Surgery

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1993
Tony Best Actress (Musical) (1989)
Grammy

Ruth Brown, Rhythm and Blues Legend

Joseph Barbera, 95
1911 - 2006
Yabba Dabba Doo!
The prolific partnership produced a huge proportion of the popular TV cartoons of the twentieth century including Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, Wacky Races, Scooby Doo

Bo Schembechler, 77
1929-2006
Schembechler, who became one of college football's great coaches in two decades at Michigan,

Bo Schembechler won 194 games as head coach at Michigan.

Floyd Patterson, 71
1935 -2006
died from Alzheimer's

was raised in Brooklyn, got into trouble early, and at age ten was sent to a juvenile facility, where he learned to box. He was 17 when he won the Olympic Gold Medal as a middleweight, and 21 when he became professional heavyweight champion of the world, beating Archie Moore for the title. No fighter has ever won the undisputed championship at a younger age.
As a professional, Patterson had 55 wins, 40 by knockout, with eight losses and one draw.

Pat Corley , 76
1930- 2006
Murphy Brown actor Pat Corley, who played Phil the barkeep on the 1988-96 sitcom

James Yancey (J-Dilla)
1974-2006
lupus

American hip hop producer and MC, who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip-hop scene in Detroit, Michigan. He began his career as "Jay Dee" but used the name "J Dilla" from 2001 on. Many considered Dilla a creative genius; he influenced some of the world's biggest hip-hop and R&B stars, many of whom he worked with

Professor X of X-Clan
Robert Lumumba Carson, 50
1956- 2006
died from meningitis,

Professor X gained notoriety for his catch phrases "Vainglorious" and dissed fools by calling them "sissies."

Billy Preston,59
1946 --2006
Musician

Wrote, You Are So Beautiful
Kidney failure

The Beatles Keyboardist 1969
The Rolling Stones Keyboardist 1971-77

Gordon Parks, 94
1912- 2006

Famous for Shaft
Film Director, Photographer, Author
Cancer - unspecified

In the more than ninety years of his life, Gordon Parks became internationally renowned as a photographer, filmmaker, poet, novelist, and composer.

Son: Gordon Parks Jr. (film director, Superfly, b. 7-Dec-1934, d. 1979 plane crash)

Corretta Scott King, 78
1927-2006
Activist
Widow of Dr. Martin Luther King

Cancer - Ovarian

Remains: Buried, Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, Atlanta, GA

Edward R Bradley, 65
Ed Bradley
60 Minutes News

Bradley was among the first black journalists to make a name for himself on national television when his battlefield reporting from the Vietnam War – in which he was wounded in 1973 – pushed him onto the national stage

Cancer - Leukemia

Author Bebe Moore Campbell, 56

died of complications from brain cancer at her home in Los Angeles .

Her novels about African-American life were best sellers, winning praise for their authenticity and readability, as well as their serious themes.

Wilson Pickett, 64
Soul singer
Albums: The exciting Wilson Pickett, I want you, In the Midnight Hour, and more...songs: Ninety-nine and a Half (Won't Do), Danger Zone,
Albums: The Exciting Wilson Pickett, I Want You, In the Midnight Hour, and more...
Songs: Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do), Danger Zone,

Earl Woods , 74

Earl Woods, died at his home
in Cypress, Calif., of cancer.

Lou Rawls, 72
1935 - 2006

His voice has been described as “sweet as sugar, soft as velvet, strong as steel, smooth as butter.” His hits include “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing,” “Dead End Street” and “You’ll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine).”
He had lung and brain cancer.