Debbie Davis stood just inside the doorway of Three Muses, singing “When I’m 64.” It was Friday night on Frenchmen Street, the day after Thanksgiving, and she held the festive crowd’s attention. “I saw the ambulance go by but I didn’t think anything of it,” she says. “Someone came into the club and told me [...]
Tag Archives: Obituary
Funeral for Billy Diamond Friday
December 8, 2011 – 1:25 pm
New Orleans blues legend William “Billy” Diamond passed away on October 20 at the age of 95. Services and burial for Diamond will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday at St Louis Cemetery Number One; relatives and friends are invited to attend. Gather at the front gates on 400 Basin Street for a procession to the [...]
Funeral for “Coach” Lewis Saturday
August 12, 2011 – 5:22 pm
On Friday, August 5, Collins “Coach” Lewis died of what was believed to have been an aneurysm at 62. Lewis made his mark sewing Mardi Gras Indian suits and as a drummer for Spirit of Fi-Yi-Yi and Mandingo Warriors, and his funeral will take place Saturday at 10 a.m. at Charbonnet-Labat-Glapion Funeral Home (1615 St. Philip [...]
Seminal Rapper Tim Smooth Passes Away
July 26, 2011 – 5:03 pm
Timothy Smoot, better known as the rapper Tim Smooth, passed away in the first hours of the morning today after a long bout with cancer. He was 39 years old. After recovering from initial treatment for throat and mouth cancer in 2009, Smooth developed lung cancer and returned to the hospital earlier this year. With [...]
Benny Spellman Passes Away in Pensacola
June 7, 2011 – 12:06 pm
[UPDATED] Benny Spellman, the singer best known for his classic New Orleans R&B sides “Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)” and “Fortune Teller,” passed away in Pensacola, Florida on Friday, June 3. Born in Pensacola, Spellman made his name in New Orleans first as a backup singer in Huey “Piano” Smith’s group the Clowns before becoming [...]
Street Musician Slewfoot Passes
April 14, 2011 – 3:07 pm
Well-known street musician Slewfoot passed away on Monday, April 11, 2011 of unknown causes. Born Mark McLaughlin in 1953, he began playing guitar at the age of 13 and in 1980 he started his career as a New Orleans street musician. Recently Slewfoot played in Woldenberg Park on the banks of the Mississippi River. Funeral [...]
Remembering Motorway’s Colin Brown
April 5, 2011 – 8:40 am
On Friday, guitarist and vocalist Colin Brown—best known for his time in the local rock band Motorway—passed away from an illness that seems to have baffled doctors. According to the Care for Colin website: Recently Colin was not feeling well and went to the hospital with what seemed like flu-like symptoms. As we started this [...]
YouTube du Jour: Pinetop Perkins
March 22, 2011 – 12:14 pm
Blues pianist Pinetop Perkins passed away yesterday in his home in Austin, Texas at the age of 97. The nonagenarian had been playing music professionally since the Great Depression, one of the last musicians still playing who could make that claim. Perkins was one of the last living links to the blues greats of yore, [...]
