The African-American community, nation and world lost several of its most famous personalities in 2006, including several who hailed from St. Louis or called this area home.
“The Empress” Katherine Dunham departed on May 21 and James Brown left the earth’s stage to perform in Heaven’s show band early on Christmas morning.
Lou Rawls, Wilson Pickett, June Pointer and Gordon Parks left us this year, as well.
Two of St. Louis’ black icons, The Honorable Theodore McMillan and Katherine Nelson, also departed after helping change lives for the better for decades.
Here are death dates of others, whose marks will never be forgotten here or worldwide.
JANUARY
2 – Veteran broadcaster and jazz elder Leo Chears, known to his audience as “the man in the red vest” and a protégé of the Jessie “Spider” Burke passes away at age 72.
6 – Lou Rawls, legendary singer and entertainer, dies at age 72 in Los Angeles. He hosted the annual Parade of Stars to benefit the United Negro College Fund and was a classic host of the annual Variety Club Telethon in St. Louis.
Chuck Carter Jr., noted musician from St. Louis, dies at age 66.
13 – Vivian Emma Dreer, teacher, counselor and community activist passes away at age 89.
18 – The Honorable Theodore McMillan, the first African-American to sit on the benches of the St. Louis City Court, 22nd Judicial District, Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit dies at age 86. President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the federal bench in 1978.
19 – Wilson Pickett, 64, gravelly voiced soul singer whose delivery and offstage antics earned him the nickname “Wicked Pickett.” His hits include “In the Midnight Hour” and “Mustang Sally.” Pickett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
24 – Fayard Nicholas, who with his brother Harold starred on stage and screen while astonishing the world with their dancing ability, dies at age 91.
26 – Kathryn Nelson, community activist, educator and philanthropist passes away at age 80. She was honored as Lifetime Achiever during the 1995 Salute to Excellence in Education.
30 – Ovarian cancer claims the life of Coretta Scott King in Mexico where she was seeking treatment for her illness. The wife of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., had carried on her husband’s work since his death in April 1968. Her last visit to St. Louis was in 2004 when she spoke at Principia College.
FEBRUARY
3 – Goldie McKinley, former owner of Carrie’s Soul Food Restaurant, dies at age 48.
5 – Franklin Cover, 77, actor who played Tom Willis, the white man married to a black woman, on The Jeffersons.
10 – Arnette D. French, pioneering publisher of Black Pages business directories in four cities and a native of St. Louis, dies at age 54.
16 – Elizabeth White Garlington, a former clinical social worker, civic leader and human right activist dies at age 86.
26 – William Westfall, a Sumner standout who helped lead Memphis State University to the Final Four in 1973, dies at age 54.
MARCH
2 – William Henry Andrews, retired hospital administrator, distinguished community leader, dies following a lengthy illness.
5 – Edward Tripp, former director of Human Services and former Commissioner of Corrections dies in St. Louis.
6 – Kirby Puckett, 45, Hall of Fame outfielder who led the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991. He played in 10 consecutive All-Star Games and retired in 1996 after being diagnosed with serious eye ailments. He died of a stroke.
7 – Gordon Parks, the first black American photojournalist for Life magazine and the first leading black filmmaker, with movies including Shaft and The Learning Tree, dies at age 93.
APRIL
2 – While shopping for Easter suits for youth members of his congregation, the Rev. Delancey Moore of St. Mark M.B. Church is killed when gale-force wind causes a department store roof to cave in on him and others in Fairview Heights, Ill.
Lula B. Harris, pastor of Hope House of Worship, dies at age 65 after a brief illness.
11 – June Pointer, 52, youngest of the Pointer Sisters, whose hits in the 1970s and ’80s included “I’m So Excited,” “Fire,” and “Slow Hand.”
13 – Arthur Winston, 100, legendary Los Angeles transportation worker who missed only one day in a 72-year career, that being the day his wife died in 1988. He had retired the day after he turned 100, three weeks before his death.
29 – Gwendolyn Taylor Griffith-Sanders, co-founder of BLL & Associates and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority dies in St. Louis.
MAY
2 – Earl Woods, father of Tiger Woods, dies after a lengthy bout with cancer. He is buried in Manhattan, Kan.
LeGrande Trottman, a longtime St. Louis resident, registered nurse and advocate for health care for the poor dies at age 68.
5 – Damu Smith, an internationally acclaimed environmental and civil rights activist dies in Washington of colon cancer at age 54. He was born in St. Louis on Dec. 6, 1951 as Leroy Wesley Smith.
10 – Jazz pianist great John Hicks, who spent his formative years in St. Louis, dies in New York at age 64.
11 – Floyd Patterson, 7, legendary boxer who won the middleweight gold medal at the 1952 Olympics. In 1956 he knocked out Archie Moore and became the youngest heavyweight champ.
13 – Johnnie Wilder, a founding member of the band Heatwave, dies at age 56.
21 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist noted for her innovative interpretations of ritualistic and ethnic dances dies in New York. Dunham was both a popular entertainer and a serious artist intent on tracing the roots of black culture. Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City, became prominent in the field of modern dance. She choreographed for Broadway stage productions and opera—including Aida (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera. She also choreographed and starred in dance sequences in such films as Carnival of Rhythm (1942), Stormy Weather (1943), and Casbah (1947) and left it all to open a cultural center in impoverished East St. Louis.
JUNE
5 – Eric Gregg, former Major League umpire who battled his weight, dies at age 55.
6 – Known as the “Fifth Beatle” for his organ and piano work with the famous band, Billy Preston dies in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 59.
29 – Lloyd Richards, 87, pioneering force in theater and Broadway’s first African American director who staged the premiere production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun in 1959. He collaborated with August Wilson for 15 years and won a Tony Award for directing the playwright’s Fences.
JULY
25 – Carl Brashear, 75, the first black man to become a U.S. Navy master deep-sea diver whose battle to overcome racism, poverty, and a disability was chronicled in the film Men of Honor.
AUGUST
7 – Robert McCullough, 64, civil-rights protester who, along with eight other students, chose to serve 30 days in prison doing hard labor rather than pay a $100 fine for requesting to be served at a whites-only lunch counter in 1961 in South Carolina
11 – Dr. Robert Holloway, the St. Louis American Foundation Lifetime Achiever who was honored during the Salute to Excellence in Health Care, dies in Overland Park, Kan., at age 76.
SEPTEMBER
10 – Bennie Smith, “Dean of the St. Louis Electric Guitarists” dies from complications following a heart attack at age 73.
13 – Charles R. Oldham, a local attorney and civil rights advocate who argued cases from St. Louis to the U.S. Supreme Court dies at age 83.
15 – Ether Bledsoe, founder of one of the area’s first minority construction firms to have revenues in the millions of dollars, passes away. He also was founder of the St. Louis Minority Contractors Association.
24 – Legendary bluesman and native St. Louisan Henry Townsend dies in Grafton, Wisc., at the age of 96. He was scheduled to perm at a blues festival in the original location of Paramount recording studios.
OCTOBER
2 – Tamara Dobson, star of Cleopatra Jones, Come Back Charlston Blue and other films dies in Baltimore.
6 – Buck O’Neil, beloved Negro League legend, groundbreaking Major League scout and coach and Negro League Museum spokesman dies in Kansas City.
24 – Enolia McMillan, 102, first woman president of the N.A.A.C.P. She was active in the organization for more than 50 years.
29 – Silas Simmons, 111, Negro leagues baseball player, believed to have been the longest-living professional baseball player in history.
NOVEMBER
4 – Melba Sweets, a pioneering journalist and editor and former owner of the St. Louis American with her husband, Nathaniel, passes away in St. Louis at age 97.
9 – Ed Bradley, an award-winning journalist who broke racial barriers at CBS News dies in New York at age 65 after a bout with leukemia. A former White House correspondent, Bradley is best known for his coverage of the Vietnam War, the fall of Saigon and his 60 Minutes segments.
10 – Singer Gerald Levert dies suddenly at age 40 after suffering a heart attack at his Cleveland home.
14 – James Harris, owner of Harris Cab Company and member of the St. Louis Taxi Commission dies at age 79 after a 15-year battle with lung cancer.
17 – Ruth Brown, 78, R&B singer, actress, and activist for royalty reform. Her 1950s hits included “Teardrops from My Eyes,” “5-10-15 Hours,” and “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean.”
23 – Gerald Boyd, a St. Louis native who served as managing editor of the New York Times after launching his career at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, dies from lung cancer on Thanksgiving Day at age 56 in New York. He was a founding member of the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists, helped create the Minority Journalism Workshop and served as mentor to countless black journalists across America.
24 – Robert McFerrin Sr., 85, of St. Louis, baritone who was the first black man to sing with the New York Metropolitan Opera, and who dubbed Sidney Poitier’s singing voice in Porgy and Bess. He was the father of singer and conductor Bobby McFerrin
27 – Bebe Moore Campbell, 56, author of novels and children’s books dealing with issues of race and mental health. Her bestsellers included Brothers and Sisters and What You Owe Me.
DECEMBER
1 – Rosie Lee Tompkins, 70, reclusive African-American quiltmaker who gained unwanted acclaim for her unconventional creations, which fused vibrant colors and geometric forms in a variety of materials.
14 – Actor Mike Evans, best known as Lionel Jefferson in the TV comedy series “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons,” dies at 57. Evans died of throat cancer.
25 – James Brown, the dynamic, “Godfather of Soul,” whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a giant of R&B and an inspiration for rap, funk and disco, died early Christmas morning. He was 73.
26 – Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States who replaced Richard Nixon after his resignation, dies in California at age 93.