Obituary News

Sandra Warfield Opera and Cabaret Singer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
July 5, 2009

Sandra Warfield, an American mezzo-soprano who performed frequently with the Metropolitan Opera in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 88 and lived on the Upper East Side.

Ms. Warfield made her Met debut in 1953, singing the part of a peasant girl in Mozarts Marriage of Figaro. One hundred seventy-two appearances with the Met followed, in roles like Berta in Rossinis Barber of Seville, Marcellina in Figaro, Erda in Wagners Siegfried, Maddalena in ...

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Ken Roberts Announcer Whose Voice Graced the Heyday of Radio Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
July 5, 2009

Ken Robertss voice was so comforting, it was said he had a golden throat. Welcome in millions of American homes, its resonant urbanity helped housewives and their families while away many an afternoon and evening.

He was a good-looking man, too: tall and dark, with a resemblance to Errol Flynn according to his son, anyway. But not many people actually knew of him, and even fewer would have recognized him if he had knocked on the front door.

In the ...

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Drawing to Determine Attendees for Michael Jackson Memorial

Source: Michael Ricci
July 4, 2009

Organizers of Michael Jackson's memorial service at Staples Center said today they will give away 17,500 tickets to the event and will randomly draw names from those who sign up online to determine who gets to attend.

The service will be live-streamed on television and on the Internet, and there will be no funeral procession, organizers said at a news conference this morning at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Organizers will draw 8,750 names, and those people will receive ...

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Allen Klein Ex-Beatles, Rolling Stones Manager Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
July 4, 2009

Former music manager Allen Klein, a no-holds-barred businessman who bulldozed his way into and out of deals with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, has died.

A publicist for Klein's company, ABKCO Music & Records, says Klein died today at his New York City home of Alzheimer's disease. He was 77.

Klein became one of the most powerful figures in music world in the 1960s. Known for his tenacity in tracking down royalties and getting better record deals, he garnered ...

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Lyudmila Zykina Soviet Union’S Best-Loved Folk Singers, Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
July 3, 2009

Lyudmila Zykina, who rose to stardom from the factory floor to become one of the Soviet Union’s best-loved folk singers, died Wednesday in Moscow. She was 80.

Her doctor, Vladimir Konstantinov, told the Itar-Tass news agency that she had died in hospital on Wednesday morning. A statement on 1tv.ru, the Web site of Channel One television in Russia, said she had had a heart attack a few days before her death.

Born in Moscow in 1929 into a family ...

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Jackson Funeral Set for Tuesday in L.A.

Source: All About Jazz
July 2, 2009

On Tuesday morning a motorcade will go from Forest Lawn Mortuary in L.A. to the Staples Center complex in downtown Los Angeles where the public memorial will be held.

Michael Jackson's public memorial service will take place at LA's Staples Center on July 7th. NBC's Michael Okwu reports preparations at the site are already underway.

[Updated at 6:15 p.m.: Few details were immediately available. But in a statement, Sunshine said that 11,000 tickets will be distributed to the ...

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5 Questions About Michael Jacksons Funeral

Source: All About Jazz
July 2, 2009

He lived in the spotlight from the age of 10, and he died in it as well, with the nation glued to their TV sets. Now Michael Jackson's fans are waiting to publicly mourn him.

His funeral, to be held Tuesday at Los Angeles's Staples Center, according to news reports, could be huge. It's possible that it will eclipse Elvis's (75,000 fans congregated in Memphis, Tenn.) and rival Princess Diana's (250,000 people in Hyde Park), according to the Daily Telegraph. ...

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Vibe Magazine, Showcase for Hip-Hop and R&B, Dies at 16

Source: Michael Ricci
July 2, 2009

On Tuesday an independent magazine backed by private equity owners succumbed to the punishing ad market and announced it would cease publication immediately. It was, as things go in publishing these days, a fairly routine story.

Quincy Jones, who founded Vibe, said he was trying to buy it. Routine except the magazine had an 800,000 circulation, was founded by the music impresario Quincy Jones and had an alluring name that came to be synonymous with hip-hop and R&B: Vibe.

Plenty ...

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