- Legendary entertainer and Grammy-winner Ray Charles died
today at age 73.
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- According to his spokesman, Jerry Digney, Charles died
at 11:35 a.m. at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., of acute liver disease,
the Associated Press reported. He was surrounded by family and friends.
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- Growing up in the segregated South, Charles overcame
the onset of blindness at age 7 and being orphaned at 15 to become a hugely
popular singer. A gifted pianist, he crooned a combination of gospel and
blues, and also dabbled in country, jazz and big band.
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- Charles performed at Republican national conventions
during Ronald Reagan's years as the party's leader.
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- "His sound was stunning ñ it was the blues,
it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing ñ it was all the stuff
I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing,"
singer Van Morrison told Rolling Stone magazine in April.
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- The entertainer won 12 Grammy Awards, nine of them between
1960 and 1966. He had the best R&B recording for three years running
("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and
"Busted"). Other hits included "What'd I Say," "I
Got A Woman" and "Georgia on My Mind." He took home his
last grammy in 1993 for "A Song for You."
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- "I was born with music inside me. That's the only
explanation I know of," Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother
Ray." "Music was one of my parts ... like my blood. It was a
force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for
me, like food or water."
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- Charles was born Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Ga. Though
both his parents worked, his family lived in poverty.
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- "Talk about poor," Charles is quoted as saying.
"We were on the bottom of the ladder."
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- The singer had a 20-year heroine addiction, which he
kicked in 1965 after getting arrested.
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- Charles learned to read and write music in Braille, score
for big bands and play many instruments, AP noted.
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- "Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear
helped me develop a damn good memory," Charles said. "I can sit
at my desk and write a whole arrangement in my head and never touch the
piano. ... There's no reason for it to come out any different than the
way it sounds in my head."
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- According to AP, Charles' last public appearance was
alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated
the singer's studios an historic landmark.
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- © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38891]
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