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        1st Floor >> Library >>  US singer Ray Charles dead at 73
        
(Message started by: Seraphiel on Jun 10th, 2004, 4:18pm)
Title: US singer Ray Charles dead at 73
Post by Seraphiel on Jun 10th, 2004, 4:18pm
Legendary US singer Ray Charles dead at 73
Friday, June 11, 2004. 6:12am (AEST)

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200406/r22990_56710.jpg

Ray Charles, who battled childhood poverty, blindness and heroin addiction to help pioneer soul music and become one of America's most enduring musicians, has died at the age of 73, a spokesman said.

Charles died at 11:35am (local time) at his Beverly Hills home from liver disease complications.

Family members and his manager were present, said Jerry Digney, his long time publicist.

In one of his last public appearances, the singer-songwriter turned up in a motorised wheelchair for a ceremony in April conferring historic-building status on his longtime recording complex in a rundown part of Los Angeles.

Visibly frail, his voice reduced to a whisper, Charles's demeanor then was a far cry from the wildly enthusiastic performer known to millions of fans for more than half a century.

A prolific musician, Charles has been off the road for almost a year so that he could undergo a hip replacement. Unspecified complications forced him to scrap plans to resume touring with a performance in New York last month.

Charles, a pioneer of soul music whose biggest hits include Georgia on My Mind and Hit the Road Jack, was a multiple Grammy winner who had been blind since the age of six.

While known as "The Genius of Soul," Charles' music included standards, R&B, country pop and jazz.

Source: Hollywood Reporter/VNU