Category: Whats Buzzing in the Streets

Tina Turner

Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and author. Born and raised in the Southeastern United States, Turner relinquished her American citizenship after obtaining Swiss citizenship in 2013.Born Anna Mae Bullock, near Brownsville, TN, she began singing as a teen and joined Ike Turner’s touring show as an 18-year-old backup vocalist. Just two years later, she was the star of the show, the attention-grabbing focal point for an incredibly smooth-running soul revue headed by Ike and his Kings of Rhythm. The couple began hitting the charts in 1960 with “A Fool in Love,” and notched charting singles throughout the 1960s such as “River Deep-Mountain High” and in 1971 with “Proud Mary.”She began her career in 1958 as a featured singer with Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm, first recording under the name “Little Ann.” Her introduction to the public as Tina Turner began in 1960 as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.Success followed with a string of notable hits credited to the duo, including “A Fool in Love”, “River Deep – Mountain High” (1966), “Proud Mary” (1971), and “Nutbush City Limits” (1973), a song which she herself wrote. In her autobiography, I, Tina, she revealed several instances of severe domestic abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. Raised a Baptist, she encountered faith with Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in 1971, crediting the spiritual chant of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, which Turner claims helped her to endure during difficult times.After her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career through live performances. In the 1980s, Turner launched a major comeback with another string of hits, starting in late 1983 with the single “Let’s Stay Together” followed by the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer which became a worldwide success. The album contained the song “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, which became Turner’s biggest hit and won four Grammy Awards including Record of the Year. Her solo success continued throughout the 1980s and 90s with multi-platinum albums including Break Every Rule and Foreign Affair, and with singles such as “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)”, “Typical Male”, “The Best”, “I Don’t Wanna Fight” and “GoldenEye” for the 1995 James Bond film of the same name. In 1993, “What’s Love Got to Do with It” was used as the title of a biographical film adapted from her autobiography, along with the film’s accompanying soundtrack album. In addition to her musical career, Turner has also garnered success acting in films, including the role of the Acid Queen in the 1975 rock musical Tommy, a starring role alongside Mel Gibson in the 1985 action film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and a cameo role in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.One of the world’s best-selling artists of all time, she has also been referred to as The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Turner has been termed the most successful female Rock ‘n’ Roll artist, receiving eleven Grammy Awards, including eight competitive awards and three Grammy Hall of Fame awards. Turner has also sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history. Her combined album and single sales total approximately 180 million copies worldwide, She is noted for her energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, and career longevity. In 2008, Turner returned from semi-retirement to embark on her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. Turner’s tour became one of the highest selling ticketed shows of 2008–09. Rolling Stone ranked Turner no. 63 on their list of 100 greatest artists of all time, and no. 17 on their list of 100 greatest singers of all time. In 1991, Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Nutbush, an unincorporated area in Haywood County, Tennessee. Her parents were Zelma Priscilla (née Currie) and Floyd Richard Bullock. Anna Mae was born at Poindexter Farm on Highway 180, where her father worked as an overseer of the sharecroppers. She is of African-American descent, with approximately 33% European and 1% Native American ancestry. (The latter was revealed when she appeared on the PBS documentary African American Lives 2, and the host Henry Louis Gates shared the results of Turner’s ancestral tests.)Anna Mae had an older sister, Ruby Aillene. As young children, Anna Mae and Aillene were separated when their parents relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, to work at a defense facility during World War II. Anna went to stay with her strict, religious paternal grandparents, Alex and Roxanna Bullock, who were deacon and deaconess at the Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church, which was located on Woodlawn Road off Highway 19. After the war, the sisters reunited with their parents and moved with them to Knoxville. Two years later, the family returned to Nutbush to live in the Flagg Grove community, where Anna attended Flagg Grove Elementary School from first through eighth grade. In 1889, her great-great uncle had sold the land on which the school was built to the school trustees.As a youngster, Anna Mae sang in the church choir at Nutbush’s Spring Hill Baptist Church. When she was 11, her mother ran off without warning, seeking freedom from her abusive relationship with Floyd Bullock. Zelma relocated to St. Louis to live with Anna Mae’s great-aunt. As a preteen, Anna Mae worked as a domestic worker for the Henderson family. When Anna Mae was 13, her father married another woman and moved to Detroit. Anna Mae and her sister were sent to live with their grandmother Georgeanna in Brownsville, Tennessee. Anna Mae later stated in her memoir, I, Tina, that she felt her mother had not loved her, and that she “wasn’t wanted”, stating further that her mother had planned to leave her father when pregnant with Anna Mae. “She was a very young woman who didn’t want another kid”, Anna Mae wrote. Her relationship with her mother remained estranged until Bullock’s death in 1999.A self-professed tomboy, Anna Mae joined both the cheerleading squad and the female basketball team at Carver High School in Brownsville, and “socialized every chance she got.” Her first boyfriend, while she was living in Brownsville, was Harry Taylor, who originally attended a rival school to hers. Taylor relocated to Anna’s school to be near her. The relationship ended after Anna Mae learned Harry had married another woman.When Anna Mae was 16, her grandmother died suddenly. After the funeral, Anna Mae went to live with her mother in St. Louis, where she was reunited with her sister. There, Anna Mae graduated from Sumner High School in 1958. After her graduation, she worked as a nurse’s aide at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and dreamed of becoming a nurse.Anna and her sister began to frequent nightclubs in the St. Louis and East St. Louis areas around this time. At Club Manhattan, a nightclub in the East St. Louis area, she first saw Ike Turner and his band, the Kings of Rhythm, perform. Anna was impressed by the band’s music and Ike’s talent, claiming the bandleader’s music put her “into a trance.” Anna felt the urge to sing on stage with Ike’s band despite the fact that few women had ever sung with him. One night in 1956, 16-year-old Anna was given a microphone by Kings of Rhythm drummer Gene Washington during an intermission. Upon hearing her sing, Ike asked her if she knew more songs; she was allowed to sing that night, becoming a guest vocalist from then on. Through this period, Ike taught her the points of voice control and performance. Her first studio recording was in 1958, singing background, under the name “Little Ann”, on the Ike Turner song, “Box Top”, alongside singer Carlson Oliver.In 1960, Ike wrote an R&B song, “A Fool in Love”, originally for Kings of Rhythm vocalist Art Lassiter. Lassiter failed to show up to the recording studio and Anna eventually was allowed to sing the song after much pleading to Ike. Ike agreed to use her voice as a “dummy vocal”, with the intention of erasing her vocals and adding Lassiter’s at a later date. Although some felt that the demo with Anna’s voice was “high pitched” and “screechy”, the song received decent airtime in St. Louis. Local St. Louis deejay Dave Dixon convinced Ike to send the tape to Juggy Murray, president of R&B label, Sue Records. Upon hearing the song, Murray was impressed with Anna’s vocals, later stating that her vocals “sounded like screaming dirt… it was a funky sound.” Murray bought the track and paid Ike a $25,000 (around $208,620 as of 2017) advance for recording and publishing rights. Murray also convinced Turner to make Anna “the star of the show.” It was at this point that Ike Turner renamed Anna Mae Bullock “Tina” because the name rhymed with the television character Sheena. Ike patented the name Tina Turner as a form of protection so that if Anna left him like his previous lead singers, he could replace her with another singer and have her perform as Tina.”A Fool in Love” was released in July 1960 and became an immediate hit, peaking at number 2 on the Hot R&B Sides chart and number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 that October. Kurt Loder described the track as “the blackest record to ever creep into the white pop charts since Ray Charles’ gospel-styled ‘What’d I Say’ that previous summer.” A second pop hit, “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” (1961), reached the top 20 and earned the group a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock and Roll Performance. Notable singles released during the duo’s Sue Records period included the R&B hits, “I Idolize You”, “Poor Fool”, and “Tra-La-La-La.” In 1964, Ike & Tina left Sue and signed with Kent Records, releasing the modest single, “I Can’t Believe What You Say.” The following year, they signed with Loma Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records and run by Bob Krasnow, who had become their manager shortly after they left Sue Records. Between 1964 and 1969, Ike & Tina signed with more than ten labels.While touring to support the record, Ike created his own musical revue, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, which included the Kings of Rhythm and a girl group that Ike named The Ikettes backing Tina, while he remained in the background, often playing his guitar to the back of Tina. Wanting to maintain their base and increase finances, Ike Turner put Tina and the entire Revue through a rigorous touring schedule across the United States, gigging 90 days straight in dates around the country. During the days of the chitlin’ circuit, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue built a reputation that a writer for the History of Rock site cited as “one of the most hottest, most durable, and potentially most explosive of all R&B ensembles” with its show rivaling that of the James Brown Show in terms of musical spectacle. The shows, organized by Ike Turner, provided them financial success. Due to their successful performances, the couple was able to perform in front of diverse crowds in the American South due to the money they made from performing in Southern clubs. Between 1963 and 1966, the band toured constantly without the presence of a hit single. Tina’s own profile was raised after several solo appearances on shows, such as American Bandstand and Shindig!, while the entire Revue appeared on shows, such as Hollywood A Go-Go, The Andy Williams Show, and, in late 1965, in the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show.By the mid-1970s, Ike Turner’s excessive cocaine habit had gotten out of hand. During this period, Tina adopted the Nichiren Buddhism faith and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo to help her deal with a stressful marriage and career. Due to Ike Turner’s drug abuse, some shows were either canceled or postponed. In July 1976, Ike Turner had plans to leave United Artists Records for a five-year, $150,000 deal with Cream Records. The deal was to be signed on July 6. On July 1, 1976, Ike and Tina were en route from Los Angeles to Dallas where the Revue had a gig at the Dallas Statler Hilton. Ike and Tina got into a fight during their ride to the hotel. Shortly after arriving to the hotel, Tina fled from the hotel and later hid at a friend’s house. On July 27, Tina sued for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. Ike claims in his book that Tina initiated the fight by purposely irritating him so that she’d have a reason to break up with him before they were scheduled to sign a new 5-year contract upon their return from Dallas.Tina later credited the Nichiren Buddhist faith and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with giving her the courage to strike out on her own. However, by walking out on Ike in the middle of a tour, she learned she was legally responsible to tour promoters for the canceled shows. After a year in court, their divorce was made final on March 29, 1978. In the divorce, she completely parted ways with him, retaining only her stage name and assuming responsibility for the debts incurred by the canceled tour as well as a significant Internal Revenue Service lien.Frustrated by Ike’s increasingly irrational behavior, though, Tina walked out just three years later. Turner converted to Buddhism in 1974 to help her conquer her troubling marriage to Ike Turner. Turner has credited Buddhism with giving her the courage to leave Ike and to find peace. Since then she has been acknowledged as one of the world’s most popular entertainers, biggest-selling music artists of all time, and the most successful female rock artist ever. She had record sales of nearly 200 million copies worldwide and sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in music’s history.After leaving Ike Turner in 1976, and divorcing him in 1978, Turner didn’t get into a serious relationship again until she met a German record executive named Erwin Bach while at Heathrow Airport in London in 1985. After a year, they started dating and have been living together ever since. Bach is 17 years younger than Turner.Turner’s world tour Break Every Rule Tour had record- breaking ticket sales and was attended by over 4 million fans. Turner also beat out The Rolling Stones by touring Europe during her sold out Foreign Affair Tour in 1990 and playing to 4 million people in just six months. Her 1996 Wildest Dreams Tour was performed to 3.5 million fans.In 2000, she launched her Twenty Four Seven Tour that packed stadiums all over the world. It was the highest grossing tour of the year, and is the 5th biggest grossing tour in America ever. Her success and contributions to the rock music genre have garnered her title, “The Queen of Rock & Roll.”She is known for her overpowering and energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, ground-breaking concerts. She was listed on Rolling Stone’s list, “The Immortals: The Greatest Artists of All Time.” Turner is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and she is also represented in the Grammy Hall of Fame by two of her recordings: “River Deep – Mountain High” (1999) and “Proud Mary” (2003).Turner has won eight Grammy Awards. In February 2008, at age 68, Turner performed together with Beyoncé at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. In addition, she picked up a Grammy as a featured artist on River: The Joni Letters. On April 29, 2008, Turner announced that she would embark on her Tina: Live in Concert Tour on October 1 in Kansas City, MO, at the Sprint Center. Turner is the mother of two sons and adopted Ike Turner’s two children from other relationships.Turner has lived in Europe since the mid-1980s, having moved to London in 1986 before settling in Switzerland later that decade. In 1996, she began building a villa outside Nice, France, which was completed by 2000. Turner has been living in a lake house, Château Algonquin in Küsnacht, next to Zürich since moving there in 1994. She owned property in Cologne, London, and Los Angeles, and a villa on the French Riviera named Anna Fleur.On January 25, 2013, it was announced that Turner had applied for Swiss citizenship, and that she would relinquish her U.S. citizenship. In April, she undertook a mandatory citizenship test which included advanced knowledge of the German language and of Swiss history. On April 22, 2013, she became a citizen of Switzerland and was issued a Swiss passport. Turner signed the paperwork to give up her American citizenship at the U.S. embassy in Bern on October 24, 2013.Turner announced in December 2016 that she has been working on Tina, a new musical based on her life story, in collaboration with Phyllida Lloyd and Stage Entertainment.

Written by Dianne Washington

Michael Kenneth Williams Dead

Michael Kenneth Williams (November 22, 1966 – September 6, 2021) was an American actor. He played Omar Little on the HBO drama series The Wire from 2002 to 2008 and Albert “Chalky” White on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire from 2010 to 2014.He earned Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in the HBO television biopic Bessie (2015), the Netflix drama series When They See Us (2019), and the HBO series The Night Of (2016) and Lovecraft Country (2020). He had a recurring role in the sitcom Community from 2011 to 2012. He also had supporting roles in a number of films including Gone Baby Gone (2006), The Road (2009), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Inherent Vice (2014), and Motherless Brooklyn (2019).Williams was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of a Bahamian mother from Nassau and Booker T. Williams, an American, from Greeleyville, South Carolina, where his African-American family has deep roots. Williams was raised in the Vanderveer Projects in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School. According to a DNA analysis, he was descended partly from the Mende people of Sierra Leone.After getting into trouble as a youth, he enrolled at the National Black Theatre in New York City.Williams worked for Pfizer pharmaceuticals as a temp. However, inspired by Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, he left school and quit his job, against the wishes of his family, to pursue a career as a dancer. During a year in which he was intermittently homeless, Williams visited record labels and dance studios looking for work. He got a job as a background dancer with singer Kym Sims, which led to more work appearing as a dancer in music videos and on tours with artists such as George Michael and Madonna, as well as some modeling work. He also choreographed Crystal Waters’ 1994 single “100% Pure Love”.Williams had a large facial scar he received in a bar fight on Jamaica Avenue, New York City, on his 25th birthday, when he was slashed with a razor blade. The scar became his signature feature, and resulted in offers to perform as a thug in music videos, and modeling opportunities with noted photographers like David LaChapelle. One of his first acting roles was alongside Tupac Shakur as High Top, the brother and henchman to Shakur’s drug kingpin Tank, in the 1996 film Bullet. Shakur reportedly decided on Williams for the role after spotting a polaroid photograph of him in a production studio.Williams also served as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador to the Campaign for Smart Justice. Williams’ portrayals of openly gay characters was deemed to be revolutionary.Williams gained recognition as an actor for his portrayal of Omar Little in The Wire, which began filming in 2002. The character was based on Donnie Andrews along with other crime figures in Baltimore. Williams received the part after a single audition, at the encouragement of writer Ed Burns. He was told that the character was slated to appear in just seven episodes and expected him to be killed by the end of the first season. However, creator David Simon stated that they always planned to keep the character as part of the continuing ensemble should the show be renewed beyond one season.For his portrayal of Omar, Williams was named by USA Today as one of ten reasons they still love television. Omar was praised for his uniqueness in the stale landscape of TV crime dramas and for the wit and humor that Williams brings to the portrayal. Omar has been named as one of the first season’s richest characters, a Robin Hood of Baltimore’s west side projects. The Baltimore City Paper named the character one of their top ten reasons not to cancel the show and called him “arguably the show’s single greatest achievement”. In 2007, he was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Omar.Williams pursued the role because he was intrigued by Omar’s contradictory nature. He felt Omar’s popularity stemmed from his honesty, lack of materialism, individuality and his adherence to his strict code. He felt that the role has been a breakthrough in terms of bringing attention to him and getting further roles. Williams received both positive and negative reactions to Omar’s homosexuality and felt that he was successful in challenging attitudes and provoking discussion with the role.In 2008, then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama cited The Wire as his favorite television show, and called Omar his favorite character. About Omar, Obama said, “That’s not an endorsement. He’s not my favorite person, but he’s a fascinating character … he’s the toughest, baddest guy on the show.”During his portrayal of Omar Little, Williams went by his character’s name and developed a habit of smoking cannabis and an addiction to cocaine in 2004. Williams lived part-time in Newark, New Jersey using drugs, but sought help from a ministry in neighboring Irvington, which he credited for helping him during the production.Williams was found dead in his Williamsburg, Brooklyn apartment by his nephew on September 6, 2021. On September 24, 2021, the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that Williams died of a fatal combination of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin and cocaine, and ruled the death as an accidental overdose. His private funeral was held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Cathedral in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where his mother lives.

Written by Dianne Washington

Larry Davis

On November 19, 33 years ago Larry Davis defended himself from a NYPD Hit Squad of over 25 officers.Larry Davis (May 28, 1966 – February 20, 2008), who changed his name to Adam Abdul-Hakeem in 1989, was a New Yorker who shot six New York City Police Department officers on November 19, 1986, when they raided his sister’s apartment in the Bronx. The police said that the raid was executed in order to question Davis about the killing of four suspected drug dealers.At trial, Davis’s defense attorneys, including William Kunstler, claimed that the raid was staged to murder him because of his knowledge of the involvement of corrupt police in the drug business. With the help of family contacts and friends, he eluded capture for the next 17 days despite a massive manhunt. Once the search was narrowed to a single building, he took several hostages but surrendered to police when the presence of reporters convinced him he would not be harmed.Davis was acquitted of attempted murder charges in the police shootout case and also acquitted of murder charges in the case involving the slain drug dealers. He was found guilty of weapons possession in the shootout case, acquitted in another murder case, and was found guilty in a later murder case, for which he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. In 2008, Davis was stabbed to death in a fight with another inmate.The Davis case generated controversy. Many were outraged by his actions and acquittal, but others regarded him as a folk hero for his ability to elude capture in the massive manhunt, or as the embodiment of a community’s frustration with the police, or as “a symbol of resistance” because “he fought back for African-Americans who are being killed by white police officers.”

Written by Dianne Washington

Della Reese

Della Reese (born Delloreese Patricia Early; July 6, 1931 – November 19, 2017) was an American nightclub, jazz, gospel, and pop singer; film and television actress; one-time talk-show hostess; and ordained minister, whose career spanned six decades. She also appeared as a guest on several talk shows and as a panelist on numerous game shows.Reese’s long career began as a singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single “Don’t You Know?”. In the late 1960s, she hosted her own talk show, Della, which ran for 197 episodes. She also starred in films beginning in 1975, including playing opposite Redd Foxx in Harlem Nights (1989), Martin Lawrence in A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) and Elliott Gould in Expecting Mary (2010). She achieved continuing success in the television religious fantasy drama Touched by an Angel (1994–2003), in which Reese played the leading role of Tess.Della Reese was born Delloreese Patricia Early on July 6, 1931 died November 19, 2017, in the historic Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan, to Richard Thaddeus Early, an African American steelworker, and Nellie (Mitchelle), a Native American cook of the Cherokee tribe. Her mother had had several children before Reese’s birth, none of whom lived with her; hence, Reese grew up as an only child. At six years old, Reese began singing in church. From this experience, she became an avid gospel singer. On weekends in the 1940s, she and her mother would go to the movies independently to watch the likes of Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Lena Horne portray glamorous lives on screen. Afterwards, Reese would act out the scenes from the films. In 1944, she began her career directing the young people’s choir, after she had nurtured acting plus her obvious musical talent. She was often chosen, on radio, as a regular singer. At the age of 13, she was hired to sing with Mahalia Jackson’s gospel group. Delloreese entered Detroit’s popular Cass Technical High School (where she attended the same year as Edna Rae Gillooly, later known as Ellen Burstyn). She also continued with her touring with Jackson. With higher grades, she was the first in her family to graduate from high school in 1947, at only 15.Afterwards, she formed her own gospel group, the Meditation Singers. However, due in part to the death of her mother and her father’s serious illness, Reese had to interrupt her schooling at Wayne State University to help support her family. Faithful to the memory of her mother, Deloreese moved out of her father’s house when she disapproved of him taking up with a new girlfriend. She then took on odd jobs, such as truck driver, dental receptionist, and even elevator operator, after 1949. Performing in clubs, Early soon decided to shorten her name from “Delloreese Early” to “Della Reese”.Reese was discovered by the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and her big break came when she won a contest, which gave her a week to sing at Detroit’s well-known Flame Show Bar. Reese remained there for eight weeks. Although her roots were in gospel music, she now was being exposed to and influenced by such famous jazz artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday. In 1953, she signed a recording contract with Jubilee Records, for which she recorded six albums. Later that year, she also joined the Hawkins Orchestra. Her first recordings for Jubilee were songs such as “In the Still of the Night” (originally published in 1937), “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and “Time After Time” (1947). The songs were later included on the album And That Reminds Me (1959).In 1957, Reese released a single called “And That Reminds Me”. After years of performing, she gained chart success with this song. It became a Top Twenty pop hit and a million-seller record. That year, Reese was voted by Billboard, Cashbox and various other magazines, as “The Most Promising Singer”. In 1959, Reese moved to RCA Records and released her first RCA single, called “Don’t You Know?,” which was adapted from Puccini’s music for La bohème, specifically, the aria “Quando m’en vo'” (Musetta’s Waltz). It became her biggest hit to date, reaching the #2 spot on the pop charts and topping the R&B charts (then called the “Hot R&B Sides”) that year. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. Eventually, the song came to be widely considered the signature song of her early career. Reese received a Grammy nomination for her 1960 album Della and then released a successful follow-up single called “Not One Minute More” (#16). She remained on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with the songs “And Now” (#69), “Someday (You’ll Want Me to Want You)” (#56) and “The Most Beautiful Words” (#67).In November 1960, Reese appeared in advertisements in Ebony magazine for the newly launched AMI Continental jukebox. Reese recorded regularly throughout the 1960s, releasing singles and several albums. Two of the most significant were The Classic Della (1962) and Waltz with Me, Della (1963), which broadened her fan base internationally. She recorded several jazz-focused albums, including Della Reese Live (1966), On Strings of Blue (1967) and One of a Kind (1978). She also performed in Las Vegas for nine years and toured across the country. Reese continued to record albums in the following decades, receiving two more Grammy nominations in the gospel category for the album Della Reese and Brilliance (1991) and for the live recorded album, My Soul Feels Better Right Now (1999). Motown singer Martha Reeves cites Reese as a major influence and says she named her group The Vandellas after Van Dyke Street in Detroit and Della Reese.In 1969, she began a transition into acting work which would eventually lead to her greatest fame. Her first attempt at television stardom was a talk show series, Della, which was cancelled after 197 episodes (June 9, 1969 – March 13, 1970).In 1970, Reese became the first black woman to guest host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She appeared in several TV movies and miniseries, was a regular on Chico and the Man and played the mother of B. A. Baracus in The A-Team episode “Lease with an Option to Die”. In 1991, she starred opposite her old friend Redd Foxx in his final sitcom, The Royal Family, but his death halted production of the series for several months. Reese also did voice-over for the late 1980s Hanna-Barbera animated series A Pup Named Scooby-Doo on ABC. In 1989, she starred alongside Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx in the film Harlem Nights, in which she performed a fight scene with Eddie Murphy. Reese appeared as a panelist on several episodes of the popular television game show Match Game.Reese has had a wide variety of guest-starring roles, beginning with an episode of The Mod Squad. This led to other roles in such series as: The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, Getting Together, Police Woman, Petrocelli, Joe Forrester, Police Story, The Rookies, McCloud, Sanford and Son with old friend Redd Foxx, Vega$, Insight and two episodes of The Love Boat. She also had a recurring role on It Takes Two opposite Richard Crenna and Patty Duke, three episodes of Crazy Like a Fox, four episodes of Charlie & Co. opposite Flip Wilson, 227 with best friend Marla Gibbs, MacGyver, Night Court, Dream On, Designing Women, Picket Fences, Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven and The Young and the Restless.She has also been featured (by proxy) on the McElroy family Dungeons and Dragons podcast, The Adventure Zone, after a magical, kickass deity was named after her.After coping with the death of one of her best friends, Redd Foxx, in 1991, she was reluctant to play an older female lead in the inspirational television drama Touched by an Angel, but went ahead and auditioned for the role of Tess. She wanted to have a one-shot agreement between CBS and producer Martha Williamson, but ordered more episodes. Reese was widely seen as a key component of the show’s success. Already starring on Touched by an Angel was the lesser-known Irish actress Roma Downey, who played the role of case worker Tess’s angel/employee, Monica. In numerous interviews, there was an on- and off-screen chemistry between both Reese and Downey.The character of Tess was the angelic supervisor who sent the other angels out on missions to help people redeem their lives and show them God’s love, while at the same time, she was sassy and had a no-nonsense attitude. The show often featured a climactic monologue delivered by the angel Monica in which she reveals herself as an angel to a human with the words: “I am an angel sent by God to tell you that He loves you.” The character of Tess was portrayed by Reese as down-to-earth, experienced and direct. Reese also sang the show’s theme song, “Walk with You,” and was featured prominently on the soundtrack album produced in conjunction with the show.During its first season in 1994, many critics were skeptical about the show, it being the second overtly religious prime-time fantasy series, after Highway to Heaven. The show had a rocky start, low ratings and was cancelled 11 episodes into the first season. However, with the help of a massive letter-writing campaign, the show was resuscitated the following season and became a huge ratings winner for the next seven seasons. At the beginning of the fourth season in 1997, Reese threatened to leave the show because she was making less than her co-stars; CBS ended up raising her salary. Touched by an Angel was cancelled in 2003, but it continued re-running heavily in syndication and on ION Television (formerly PAX-TV), The Hallmark Channel, Up, and later Me-TV.Roma Downey said of her on- and off-screen relationship with Reese:”She’s very wise. She’s very loving. She can be a little gruff at times, but she’s always adoring and adorable. I lost my mother when I was very young, and during my whole adolescence and into my twenties, I’d been looking for a mother figure, and I really think I can say with absolute truth and sincerity that I feel that I finally found her in Della Reese.”Downey later also said:”I think I’ll just always remember the feel of her neck against my cheek when she hugs me and the love I know that she has for me and the love that I feel for her and the love that she has for God. To know Della is to know that she loves God.Reese’s mother, Nellie Mitchelle Early, died in 1949 of a cerebral hemorrhage. Reese’s father, Richard Early, died ten years later. Reese had an adoptive daughter whom she acquired from a family member unable to care for her, named Deloreese Daniels Owens, in 1961. Owens died on March 14, 2002. It was never released whether she died from suicide or from implications stemming from pituitary disease. Reese said about the painful experience, sharing her frustration with the lack of awareness and knowledge of pituitary disorders,”When it happened, I thought, ‘It’s such an odd thing to die from,’ because pituitary problems aren’t something you hear about. It makes it harder because you don’t understand what happened. It seemed so strange and hard to explain. It still is, to be honest.”In 1952, Reese married factory worker Vermont Adolphus Bon Taliaferro, nineteen years her senior, and adopted the stage name Pat Ferro for a week, before introducing her current name – though sources differ as to whether this was after the failure of the marriage, or simply a show-business decision.A second marriage ceremony, on 28 December 1959, to accountant Leroy Basil Gray, who had two children by a previous marriage, was kept secret for some time. This marriage either ended in divorce or was annulled on the basis that Gray’s previous divorce was invalid.Reese appears to have been briefly married to Mercer Ellington (who was then her manager) in 1961, before this was annulled due to Ellington’s Mexican divorce being ruled invalid.In 1979, after taping a guest spot for The Tonight Show, she suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm, but made a full recovery after two surgeries by neurosurgeon Charles Drake at University Hospital in London, Ontario. In 1983, she married Franklin Thomas Lett, Jr., a concert producer and writer. In 2002, Reese announced on Larry King Live that she had been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, but didn’t come as a surprise considering what she ate and what her diet consisted of, as well as her weight. She loved cake, especially chocolate. She became a spokeswoman for the American Diabetes Association, traveling around the United States to raise awareness about this disorder. In 2005, Reese was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her Legends Ball ceremony, along with 25 other black women.In the 1980s, Reese was ordained as a minister through the Christian New Thought branch known as Unity, after serving as the senior minister and founder of her own church, Understanding Principles for Better Living. The “Up Church” is under Universal Foundation for Better Living, a denomination of Christian New Thought founded by Rev. Johnnie Colemon, a close friend of Rev. Reese-Lett. In 2014, the IRS Criminal Division began investigating the disappearance of nearly $2 million from church banking investments, as well as very questionable/misappropriation of church funds and not paying church employees their earned wages. They currently meet at First Lutheran Church (www.firsting.org) in Inglewood, California. In her ministerial work, she is known as the Rev. Dr. Della Reese Lett.On July 6, 2011, Reese celebrated her 80th birthday at the Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles. In 2015, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.On August 29, 2016, nearly two months after she celebrated her 85th birthday, Reese was said to be in failing health, as she uses a wheelchair, following two serious brain surgeries. She also admitted her suffering from diabetes, “My life is at stake,” she said. “I don’t have type 2 diabetes — type 2 diabetes has me.”Reese was not wheelchair bound, and tried to avoid using one often because it would make her condition worse. Prior to attending the 2014 ceremony to honor her former co-star and long-time friend, Roma Downey, who received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, years after her mentor, Della Reese admitted (after collapsing on the set of Touched by an Angel) that diet had contributed to her diabetes, after years of eating her old, nightly snacks of fried chicken, potato chips, ice cream, candy bars and cola, and was very frustrated because she didn’t do anything to prevent her health problems. “With diet, exercise and medication, I took control of my diabetes,” she stated. “I lost 20 pounds and lowered my blood sugar from between 275 and 300 to between 67 and 110.” After her last appearance on Signed, Sealed, Delivered, she had retired from acting.

Written by Dianne Washington

Savion Glover

Savion Glover was born on this date in 1973. He is an African American actor, tap dancer, and choreographer.Glover was born in Newark, N.J., where as a young child he displayed an enthusiasm for rhythms and at age four he began taking drumming lessons. At age seven he began taking tap lessons and quickly developed a passion for rhythm tap, a form that uses all parts of the foot to create sound. Glover is a graduate of the Newark Arts High School.Glover’s great grandfather on his mother’s side, Dick (King Richard) Lundy, was a shortstop in the Negro Leagues. He managed eleven Negro League baseball teams, including the Newark Eagles. His grandfather, Bill Lewis, was a big band pianist and vocalist.His grandmother, Anna Lundy Lewis, was the minister of music at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, NJ. She played for Whitney Houston when she was singing in the gospel choir. Anna Lundy Lewis was the one who first noticed Savion’s musical talent. She once held him and hummed some rhythms to him, and he smiled and joined along.Savion states his style is “young and funk.” When asked to describe what funk is, he says it is the bass line. “Funk is anything that gets one’s head on beat. It is riding with the rhythm. It is a pulse that keeps one rolling with the beat.”Gregory Hines, a tap legend, was one of Glover’s tap teachers. Hines stated that “Savion is possibly the best tap dancer that ever lived.” Savion likes to start his pieces with some old school moves from famous tappers and then work his way into his own style. Hines says it’s like paying homage to those he respects. When Honi Coles died, Savion performed at his memorial service. He finished his dance with a famous Coles move, a backflip into a split from standing position, then getting up without using one’s hands. Savion rarely does this move because it wasn’t his style, but he did it because it was Coles’ style that Savion wanted to keep alive. “I feel like it’s one of my responsibilities to keep the dance alive, to keep it out there, to keep the style.”Henry LeTang called Glover “the Sponge,” because he learns very quickly with everything that is thrown at him. LeTang taught the Hines brothers back in the 1950s and taught Glover for a little while before having him work for “Black and Blue,” a tap revue in Paris in 1987. Many legendary tappers taught Glover such as LeTang, the Hines brothers, Jimmy Slyde, Chuck Green, Lon Chaney (Isaiah Chaneyfield), Honi Coles, Sammy Davis, Jr., Buster Brown, Howard Sims, and Arthur Duncan.While a student at Broadway Dance Center in Manhattan, his teacher arranged an audition for him with a Broadway choreographer. This led to his Broadway debut at age 10 in “The Tap Dance Kid.” He made his film debut in 1989’s “Tap” co-starring with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr. In 1990, he joined the cast of the children’s television series, “Sesame Street.”He came to additional public attention in 1996, starring in the George C. Wolfe-produced musical “Bring in ‘da Noise/Bring in ‘da Funk” for which he won the 1996 Tony award. He also starred in Spike Lee’s 2000 film “Bamboozled.” In 2004, Glover partnered with spoken word artist Reg E. Gaines and saxophonist Matana Roberts in a John Coltrane-inspired improvisation session, “If Trane Wuz Here.”Savion has danced on concert stages throughout the world, including the Moulin Rouge, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. He choreographed a work for the Washington Society for the Performing Arts in association with the NEA and has received an Endowment Grant for Choreography, making him the youngest person in NEA history to receive this honor. He has won numerous other awardsIn 2005, he collaborated with a string chamber orchestra and his band, “The Otherz,” in “Classical Savion”. He is the motion-capture dancer for Mumble, the penguin in the Warner Bros. animated release “Happy Feet.”Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (2016).Glover choreographed this musical, which opened in 2016 at the Music Box Theatre. He has been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Choreography and a Drama Desk Award for his work on the musical.

Written by Dianne Washington

Delroy Lindo

Delroy Lindo was born on this date in 1952. He is a Black British-American actor.Delroy George Lindo was born in Lewisham, southeast London, the son of Jamaican parents who had immigrated to the United Kingdom. Lindo grew up in nearby Eltham and became interested in acting like a child when he appeared in a nativity play at school. Lindo’s mother emigrated to the UK in 1951 from Jamaica to work as a nurse and his father worked in various jobs. As a teenager, he and his mother moved to Toronto, Ontario. When he was 16, they moved to San Francisco. At the age of 24, Lindo started acting studies at the American Conservatory Theater, graduating in 1979.Lindo’s film debut came in 1976 with the Canadian John Candy comedy Find the Lady, followed by two other roles in films, including an army sergeant in More American Graffiti (1979). He stopped his film career for 10 years to concentrate on theatre acting. In 1982 he debuted on Broadway in “Master Harold”…and the Boys, directed by the play’s South African author Athol Fugard. By 1988, Lindo had earned a Tony nomination for his portrayal of Herald Loomis in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. He is also the recipient of such accolades as an NAACP Image Award, a Satellite Award, and nominations for a Drama Desk Award, a Helen Hayes Award, two Critics’ Choice Television Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.Lindo returned to film in the science fiction film Salute of the Jugger (1990), which has become a cult classic. Although he had turned down Spike Lee for a role in Do the Right Thing, Lee cast him as Woody Carmichael in the drama Crooklyn (1994), which brought him to notice. His other roles with Lee include the West Indian Archie, a psychotic gangster, in Malcolm X, and a starring role as a neighborhood drug dealer in Clockers. and Paul in Da 5 Bloods (2020), for the latter of which he received universal acclaim for his performance as a Vietnam War veteran, winning the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor. Lindo also played Bo Catlett in Get Shorty (1995), Arthur Rose in The Cider House Rules (1999), and Detective Castlebeck in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000).Lindo starred as Alderman Ronin Gibbons in the TV series The Chicago Code (2011), as Winter on the series Believe (2014), and currently stars as Adrian Boseman in The Good Fight (2017). Lindo has an honorary doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Virginia Union University and in 2014, earned a master’s in fine arts from New York University’s Gallatin School.

Written by Dianne Washington

Lisa Bonet

On this date in 1967, Lisa Bonet was born. She is an African American actress and model. Lisa Bonet was born to a Jewish mother and a Black father in San Francisco. Bonet’s parents divorced when she was young, and her formative years were spent mostly in New York City and L.A. At age 11, she started auditioning for commercials, and after several years of ads and walk-on TV parts, she landed a coveted role in NBC’s “The Cosby Show.” The show was an immediate hit, and Bonet quickly asserted herself as one of the most memorable kids in the Huxtable clan, the outspoken teenager, Denise.Bonet shared her character’s defiant persona and left TV in 1987 for a racy part opposite Mickey Rourke in the Gothic thriller Angel Heart. The role required the 19-year-old Bonet to appear in several graphic sex scenes, some of which had to be cut for mainstream American release. The part did little to further her big-screen career, and by the end of the year she would return to episodic TV in the series “A Different World.” Also in 1987, Bonet married rocker Lenny Kravitz, whose impulsive free spirit and bi-racial upbringing paralleled hers.The Cosby-produced “World” was a hit, but Bonet lost interest, often showing up late to the set or not at all. Within two years she was gone, spending more time with her newborn daughter Zoe. Bonet spent the remainder of the 1980s making infrequent appearances on “The Cosby Show,” and she made a conscious decision not to act in the early 1990s. In 1993, her marriage to Kravitz fell apart, and to make ends meet in the mid-90s, she accepted roles in made-for-TV and straight-to-video productions.Around this time, Bonet legally changed her name to Liliquois Moon, and claimed she would continue to use her birth name for her acting career. She had another child with boyfriend and former yoga instructor Brian Kest before returning to the big screen with a memorable supporting role in 1998’s “Enemy of the State.” It appeared that her Hollywood career was once again on-track when director Stephen Frears cast her as a sultry one-night-stand in “High Fidelity” (2000).Despite her spotty film work, Lisa Bonet remains one of the more intriguing young character actresses in Hollywood, enjoying a longevity that few former child stars can claim. In 2005, she began a relationship with actor Jason Momoa, and they married in 2007. On July 23, 2007, Bonet gave birth to her second child, Lola Iolani Momoa, her first with Momoa. On December 15, 2008, the couple had a son named Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa.

Written by Dianne Washington

Ol’ Dirty Bastard

Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004), better known under his stage name Ol’ Dirty Bastard (or ODB), was an American rapper and producer. He was one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a rap group primarily from Staten Island, New York which first rose to mainstream prominence with their 1993 debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).After establishing the Wu-Tang Clan, Ol’ Dirty Bastard went on to pursue a successful solo career and contributed as a rapper/producer for the Fugees. However, his professional success was hampered by frequent legal troubles, including incarceration. He died on November 13, 2004, of a drug overdose, two days before his 36th birthday. Before his death, Ol’ Dirty Bastard recorded his third solo album, which remains unreleased.Ol’ Dirty Bastard was noted for his “outrageously profane, free-associative rhymes delivered in a distinctive half-rapped, half-sung style”. His stage name was derived from the 1980 martial arts film Ol’ Dirty and the Bastard (also called An Old Kung Fu Master, starring Yuen Siu-tien).Russell Jones was born on November 15, 1968 in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, New York. He and his cousins Robert Diggs and Gary Grice shared a taste for rap music and martial arts-style movies. Jones, Diggs, and Grice (later known as Ol’ Dirty Bastard, RZA, and GZA respectively) formed the group Force of the Imperial Master, which subsequently became known as All in Together Now after their successful underground single of the same name. They eventually added six more members to their group, calling it the Wu-Tang Clan. The group released their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993, receiving notable commercial and critical success.Leading up to his death, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s legal troubles and eccentric behavior made him “something of a folk hero”, according to The New Yorker writer Michael Agger. Music writer Steve Huey wrote: “it was difficult for observers to tell whether Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s wildly erratic behavior was the result of serious drug problems or genuine mental instability.” According to The Atlantic contributing editor and music biographer James Parker, ODB had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2003.Ol’ Dirty Bastard collapsed at approximately 4:35 pm (EST) on November 13, 2004 (two days before his 36th birthday) at RZA’s recording studio (36 Chambers Records LLC on West 34th Street in New York City). His funeral was held at Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center and drew a crowd of thousands.The official cause of death was a drug overdose; an autopsy found a lethal mixture of cocaine and the prescription drug tramadol. The overdose was ruled accidental and witnesses say Ol’ Dirty Bastard complained of chest pain on the day he died.

Written by Dianne Washgington

Grady from Sanford & Son

Whitman Blount Mayo (November 15, 1930 – May 22, 2001) was an American actor best known for his role as Grady Wilson on the 1970’s television sitcom Sanford and Son.Mayo was born in New York City, New York, and grew up in Harlem and Queens. At the age of seventeen he moved with his family to Southern California and from there entered the United States Army, serving from 1951 to 1953. Upon release, he studied at Chaffey College, Los Angeles City College, and UCLA. During this time he began acting in small parts, while waiting tables, working in the vineyards and as a probation officer as well as a variety of other small jobs. He also spent seven years as a counselor to delinquent boys.In the late 1960s, while working for the New Lafayette Theater, Norman Lear offered Mayo a part as Grady Wilson on Sanford and Son. His portrayal of Grady Wilson caught on and he lasted through the entire duration of the show. He opened a travel agency in Inglewood, California. Mayo would later star in the unsuccessful spin-off, Grady, in which his character moved in with his daughter and her husband in Beverly Hills. After the cancellation of Grady after only ten episodes in 1976, Mayo and the Grady character returned to Sanford and Son, where they remained for the duration of the series’ run until its cancellation by NBC in 1977. Mayo also reprised the role in the unsuccessful 1977 NBC-TV spinoff series Sanford Arms opposite actor Theodore Wilson, as well as for two episodes of Sanford, another NBC-TV Sanford and Son spinoff, this time opposite Redd Foxx and actor Dennis Burkley, in 1981. Mayo’s character name, Grady Wilson, was the real name of the actor who played Lamont Sanford (Grady Demond Wilson).Also in the late 1970’s, Mayo appeared on the Los Angeles children’s television program That’s Cat, offering sage advice in a sweet manner to the main character, Alice.In 1991 he appeared in an episode of Full House called “The Volunteer”. He played a senior named Eddie Johnson.In 1996, Late Night with Conan O’Brien spent several weeks trying to “find Grady,” and have Mayo appear on the show. The show aired a mock episode of Unsolved Mysteries. On February 8, 1996, Mayo finally appeared on Late Night, to much fanfare. Mayo also played a role in The Cape as Sweets, the owner of Moonshot Bar and Grill.Although best known for his television work, Mayo made several film appearances, including The Main Event with Barbra Streisand, D.C. Cab, Boyz n the Hood and Waterproof with Burt Reynolds. Mayo also appeared as Reverend Banyon on the BET TV Movie Boycott in 2001 and in an episode of Martin. He also taught drama at Clark Atlanta University and hosted Liars and Legends on Turner South. Mayo died of a heart attack, at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital. He had resided in Atlanta’s Historic Collier Heights community, since 1994 and was survived by his children and by his third wife, Gail Mayo.His son, Rahn Mayo, is currently a member of the Georgia House of Representatives representing House District 91. He is also survived by his daughters Tanya Mayo, Suni Mayo Simpson, and daughter Pangi Raysor and son Jon-Jo Raysor of Brooklyn, New York.

Written by Dianne Washington

Ron Isley

Ronald Isley ( May 21, 1941) is an American recording artist, songwriter, record producer, and occasional actor. Isley is better known as the lead singer and founding member of the family music group the Isley Brothers.Isley was born the third of six brothers (O’Kelly Isley, Jr., Rudolph Isley, Ronald, Vernon Isley, Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley) to Sallye Bernice (Bell) and O’Kelly Isley, Sr. Ronald, like many of his siblings, began his career in the church. He began singing at the age of three, winning a $25 war bond for singing at a spiritual contest at the Union Baptist Church. By the age of seven, Ronald was singing on-stage at venues such as the Regal Theater in Chicago, alongside Dinah Washington and a few other notables.By his early teens, he was singing regularly with his brothers in church tours and also first appeared on TV on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour. In 1957, sixteen-year-old Ronald and his two elder brothers O’Kelly, 19 and Rudy, 18, moved to New York, recording doo-wop for local labels before landing a major deal with RCA Records in 1959, where the trio wrote and released their anthemic “Shout”. By the summer of 1959, the Isley family had moved from Cincinnati to a home in Englewood, New Jersey.For much of the Isley Brothers’ duration, Ron Isley would remain the group’s consistent member of the group as well as the lead vocalist for most of the group’s tenure with sporadic lead shares with his older brothers. In 1969, Ron and his brothers reformed T-Neck Records in a need to produce themselves without the control of record labels, forming the label shortly after ending a brief tenure with Motown. In 1973, the group’s style and sound drastically changed following the release of the 3 + 3 album where brothers Ernie Isley and Marvin Isley and in-law Chris Jasper permanently enter the brothers’ lineup, writing the music and lyrics to the group’s new sound. The younger brothers had been providing instrumental help for the brothers since the late 1960s. By the mid-1970s, Ronald was living in Teaneck, New Jersey.After Kelly Isley’s death in 1986 and Rudy Isley’s exit to fulfill a dream of ministry in 1989, Ronald has carried on with the Isley Brothers name either as a solo artist or with accompanying help from the group’s younger brothers, much more prominently, Ernie Isley. In 1990, Isley scored a top-ten duet with Rod Stewart with a cover of his brothers’ hit “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)”, and in 2003 Ronald recorded a solo album, Here I Am: Bacharach Meets Isley, with Burt Bacharach. In addition, Ron Isley became a sought-after hook singer for R&B veteran R. Kelly, and hip-hop acts such as Warren G, 2Pac and UGK.Ronald released his first solo album Mr. I on November 30, 2010. The album includes the first single “No More” It debuted at number 50 on the Billboard 200, selling 22,243 copies. It was his first solo album to crack that chart.In 2010, Isley received a “Legend Award” at the Soul Train Music Awards.In 2013, Ronald released his second solo album This Song Is For You sign labels eOne. The album includes the first single “Dinner and A Movie”. Second single, Premiere Song “My Favorite Thing” wrote, features and produced singer, Kem. Ronald received a nominees Independent R&B/Soul Artist Performance, at the Soul Train Music Awards.In 2014, Ronald made a cameo appearance in the music video for Kendrick Lamar song “i”.In 1993, Isley married producer/composer/singer Angela Winbush in Los Angeles, California. They quietly divorced in early 2002. When Winbush received chemotherapy following her ovarian cancer diagnosis, Isley was by her side giving her his support in her recovery. He has older children with various women, including daughters Tawanna and Trenisha. In 2004, while in London, Isley suffered a mild stroke, which halted an Isley Brothers tour there. In September 2005, Isley made headlines when he married background singer Kandy Johnson (of the duo JS/Johnson Sisters), who is 35 years his junior. Their son, Ronald Isley, Jr. was born in January 2007. In 2007, it was reported Isley had kidney problems. He still lives in St. Louis.

Written by Dianne Washington