Author: Kelly

(CNN) — Ray Charles, the innovative singer and pianist whose combinations of blues and gospel pioneered soul music and earned him the nickname “the Genius,” has died. He was 73.

Charles died at 11:35 a.m. (2:35 p.m. ET), in Beverly Hills, California, his publicist said. The cause was of complications from liver disease.

Charles was a towering figure in pop music history. The term “genius” came from Frank Sinatra — no slouch in the singing department himself — and others called him “the greatest pop singer of his generation” and “a true American musical original.”

It was Charles’ blending of gospel and blues music on the 1954 recording of “I Got a Woman” — created at a small radio station studio in Atlanta, Georgia — which is often credited as the beginning of soul music.

But Charles was never one to pay attention to musical boundaries. Born in the Deep South, raised on gospel, blues, country, jazz and big band, he forged these disparate styles into something all his own.

“His sound was stunning — it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing — 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.

Charles won 12 Grammy awards, including the award for best R&B recording three consecutive years (“Hit the Road Jack,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “Busted”). His version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind” was named the Georgia state song in 1979, and he lent his gravelly voice to songs ranging from “America the Beautiful” to “Makin’ Whoopee” to the 1985 all-star recording of “We Are the World.”

“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.”

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Former President Ronald Reagan died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93.

Reagan led a conservative revolution that set the economic and cultural tone of the 1980s, hastened the end of the Cold War and revitalized the Republican Party. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease since at least late 1994.

Reagan’s body is to lie in state at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, and at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., before his burial at the library.

Reagan disclosed in November 1994 in a passionate letter to the American people that he has Alzheimer’s disease. Reagan faded from public view a short time later and has been rarely seen outside his home.

The former Hollywood film actor stopped going to his Century City office in 1999 but still made trips to parks and enjoyed strolls on the Venice Beach boardwalk with his Secret Service contingent.

At 69, Reagan was the oldest man elected president when he was chosen on November 4, 1980, over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.

On March 30, 1981, Reagan was leaving a Washington hotel after addressing labor leaders when John Hinckley fired six gunshots at him. A bullet lodged an inch from Reagan’s heart, but he recovered fully.

Reagan has also undergone a 1985 colon cancer operation and 1987 prostate and skin-cancer surgery.

He fell and broke his hip in 2001, less than a month before his 90th birthday.

Former President Ronald Reagan died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93.

Recognize the title? Most people probably won’t see the relationship between the title and today’s events in history. I thought it was appropriate because today, July 27th, 2003 is the 50 year anniversary of the armistice between North and South Korea. Over 5 million people were killed during the Korean War.

I read a story this morning from the Associated Press that talked about a rain-soaked ceremony being held in Panmunjom. This is the village where the armistice was signed 50 years ago today. 1,200 veterans attended this ceremony and later toured a military hut that straddled the demarcation line where a single North Korean soldier stood guard.

AP-Obit-Jeffries

Creator of original ‘Star Trek’ starship dies

(Los Angeles-AP) — The man who created the original “Star Trek” starship “Enterprise” has died.

Film and T-V art director Matt Jeffries has been ill and died of a heart attack Monday at a Los Angeles-area hospital. He was 82.

Jeffries worked as a set designer for films in the late 1950s. He served as art director for T-V shows like “The Untouchables,” “Little House on the the Prairie” and “Dallas.”

Jeffries designed the “Enterprise” before the “Star Trek” series debuted in 1966, and remained with the show for many years.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)
AP-NY-07-25-03 0741EDT