Rainey J. “Jimmy” Crawford III, a real estate developer and the former owner of a local jazz dinner club, died Saturday (May 26, 2007) at Barnes-Jewish Hospital after suffering from an asthma attack at his home in St. Louis. He was 41.
He was born in St. Louis and graduated from Parkway West High School. He then graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta with a double major in marketing and international business. Mr. Crawford was active in campus marketing organizations and spent time studying in Mexico.
After graduation, Crawford returned to St. Louis and worked in sales and marketing for Monsanto. During the early 1990s, he moved back to Atlanta and opened two nightclubs, both named Frozen Paradise.
In 1994, Crawford opened Lyrics on the West End, a sophisticated jazz and supper club on Euclid Avenue. He sold the club a few years later and went into real estate development.
Crawford owned two real estate companies; Kingsbury Management Development and the RJC Development Firm located on DeBaliviere Avenue. He was an active developer on rehabbing homes, condominiums and apartments in St. Louis, especially in the Skinker-DeBaliviere area.
Among the survivors are his parents, Rainey Jr. and Thelma Crawford of Kansas City; and a sister, Sharon Butler of Naperville, Ill.