Bernard Lansky

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Bernard Lansky, the Memphis retailer who helped a young Elvis Presley establish his signature clothing style of pegged pants, two-toned shoes and other flashy duds in the 1950s, has died. He was 85.

After World War II, the store started selling Army surplus goods on Beale Street. When the supply dried up, they opened a high-fashion men’s store, where Bernard Lansky established his reputation as a natural salesman and storyteller.

Lansky Bros. ended up supplying Presley with the pink and black shirts and other outfits.

“It’s a statement to say that he dressed one of the most influential entertainers of all time,” Julie Lansky said in a telephone interview. “He knew that for any entertainer, they had to look different.”

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(Courtesy of the Bernard J. Lansky Collection/ Associated Press ) – In this 1957 photo provided courtesy of the Bernard J. Lansky Collection, clothier Bernard Lansky displays a jacket in his high-fashion store in Memphis, Tenn. Lansky, known as the clothier to rock and roll icon Elvis Presley, died Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012 at age 85 in Memphis.

Walt Zeboski

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Walt Zeboski, who chronicled Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign and a succession of California governors as a photographer for The Associated Press, has died. He was 83.

Zeboski died Monday at his home in Sacramento after battling pneumonia. His death was confirmed Tuesday to the AP by his wife, Virginia Zeboski.

She said the family brought her husband home Friday from Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento and provided hospice care for him over the weekend.

Colleagues remembered Zeboski for his journalistic integrity and dedication to the wire service.

“He had a newsman’s instinct,” said Sacramento-based AP photographer Rich Pedroncelli, who described Zeboski as a mentor. “He knew where to be when he needed to be there.”

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ALEX ALVES

Retired soccer striker Alex Alves do Nascimento, a member of the Palmeiras squad that won the Brazilian league title in 1994, died Wednesday of complications after a bone-marrow transplant, doctors said. He was 37.

Alves passed away at Amaral de Carvalho Foundation Hospital in Jau, a city in Sao Paulo state.

The former player was admitted in September with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare disease of the bone marrow, the hospital said in a statement.

He underwent a successful bone-marrow transplant on Oct. 5, but recently began to experience symptoms of rejection and finally succumbed to multiple organ failure.

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Major Harris dies,65

RICHMOND, Va. —

Major Harris, a former member of the “Philadelphia sound” soul group the Delfonics and singer of the 1975 hit “Love Won’t Let Me Wait,” has died in Richmond. He was 65.

His sister, Catherine Thomas, told The Associated Press that Harris passed away Friday morning from congestive heart and lung failure after being rushed to a hospital.

The Richmond native was born Feb. 9, 1947, and grew up in a musical family. His father was a guitarist and his mother led the church choir, Thomas said.

In his teens, Harris was tall for his age and was able to get into clubs to watch musicians perform, she said.

“He always appeared to be older, which gave him a lot of ins to a lot of older places,” Thomas joked.

She said he didn’t drink in the clubs back then, but he was pursuing his career. Music, she said, “was his life.”

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Jim Durham, 65

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP)

ESPN radio announcer Jim Durham, who called NBA games for the network, has died. He was 65.

ESPN said Monday that Durham died over the weekend at his home in Tomball, Texas. A cause of death was not announced.

In 2011, Durham received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport. A Chicago native, Durham called Bulls games during Michael Jordan’s first seven seasons. He also served as a broadcaster for the Dallas Mavericks, Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros.

”Jim was the voice of the Bulls for 18 years and he was the best at calling a basketball game I ever heard,” Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf said in a release. ”I loved the energy he brought to our broadcasts, the way he painted a word picture of what was happening on the court which made you feel like you were there, and his sense of humor.”

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PAUL KEYES

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) –

Virginia Commonwealth University Head Baseball Coach Paul Keyes passed away early Saturday afternoon after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 50 years old.

The Rams’ all-time winningest coach with 603 career victories, Keyes spent 18 seasons at the helm of VCU’s baseball program. During his tenure as head coach, he led the Black and Gold to eight NCAA Tournament appearances and five Colonial Athletic Association championships. He was also a four-time CAA Coach of the Year.

After serving as an assistant coach from 1985-91, Keyes returned to VCU as head coach in 1995. He became the program’s winningest coach in nine seasons when he picked up his 330^th victory on May 4, 2003. Keyes elevated VCU to not only one of the best programs in the state of Virginia, but also along the East Coast, winning nearly 60 percent of its games over the last 15 years. Under his guidance, VCU boasted 12 straight winning seasons from 1996-2007 and won 40-plus games on four occasions.

Recognized as an excellent teacher, recruiter and mentor, 36 of Keyes’ former players have gone on to play professional baseball, including six in the Major Leagues.

A native of Newport News, Va., he is survived by his wife, Trisha and three children, Paul Jr., MacKenzie and Kyle.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

 

Coach Keyes, Keydog, Paul. However you knew him, Paul Keyes was unique.

 

I was fortunate to interact with Coach Keyes in multiple ways. I got to know him as a competitor when I was the Sports Information Director at the University of Richmond. Coach Keyes was as competitive as anyone on the field during a game, but was extremely amicable before and after the contests. He loved to talk baseball, whether it was with his own staff, visiting staffs, umpires, scouts, members of the media.

 

I worked with Coach Keyes while Director of Athletic Communications at VCU. It was great to watch him on a daily basis. But he treated me the same as he had when I was with the enemy, the Spiders.

 

In my role with CollegeBaseballInsider.com, Coach Keyes was a valuable resource and a great sounding board, someone terrific to talk with about college baseball. He had his hand on the pulse of the sport not only on a local and regional level, but on a national level as well. I always thought Coach Keyes should have been on the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee. He would have done a thorough and accurate job of selecting the at-large teams for the NCAA Tournament. He knew if Pepperdine was more worthy of a bid than Georgia Southern. Coach Keyes gave us excellent suggestions on items to put on the site, including the Open Dates pages, where coaches could look to complete future schedules and attempt to find replacement games after rainouts.  READ MORE…

Brad Armstrong

Pro wrestler Brad Armstrong (born Robert James) died last Thursday at the age of 51. He was the son of legendary Southern territories wrestler “Bullet” Bob Armstrong and the brother of Steve, Scott and Brian Armstrong (AKA “Road Dogg” Jesse James). Brad wrestled primarily in the National Wrestling Alliance territories in the 80’s and World Championship Wrestling during the 90’s. He was a very gifted wrestler who went through many different gimmicks and characters throughout his entire career but none of them could catch on with the fans. Brad didn’t have the charisma of his younger brother Brian but he was a more technically sound grappler who was used primarily as an under card performer who put over many up and coming stars.

The most notable of the characters that bookers used to try and get Brad over with the crowd were “Arachnaman” (a Spider-Man knock-off that was quickly taken off the air when Marvel Comics threatened to sue World Championship Wrestling over copyright infringement), Buzzkill (another knock-off of a more successful gimmick, this time of his younger brother’s Road Dogg persona), The Candy Man (He wore peppermint striped tights and handed out candy to the young fans), Badstreet (a masked member of the Fabulous Freebirds) and B.A., a member of the stable called No Limit Soldiers (a faction put together during Master P’s brief involvement with W.C.W. None of these connected with the crowds and Brad continued to get lost in the shuffle despite being a great in-ring talent.

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Mitch Lucker

© Mitch Lucker / Instagram

Crash kills Suicide Silence singer Mitchell Lucker

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Mitchell Lucker, frontman for the death-metal band rising star Suicide Silence, died Thursday of injuries in a Southern California motorcycle crash. He was 28.

Lucker lost control of his black 2013 Harley-Davidson in Huntington Beach at 8:55 p.m. on Halloween night and slammed into a Main Street light pole, police said in a news release. He died Thursday at University of California, Irvine, Medical Center.

Lucker, who lived in Huntington Beach, was ejected while the motorcycle continued south and crashed into a Nissan Titan pickup truck, police said in a news release. Two people in the pickup and nearby trick-or treaters weren’t hurt.

The accident was being investigated to determine whether alcohol was a factor, police said.

Fans gathered Thursday night for a candlelight vigil at the crash site.

Riverside-based Suicide Silence members include guitarists Chris Garza and Mark Heylmun, bass player Dan Kenny and drummer Alex Lopez.

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Terry Callier, 67

Influential but overlooked jazz-folk singer Terry Callier died Saturday at a Chicago hospital after a lengthy battle with throat cancer. He was 67.

Described by the Chicago Sun-Times as a “man of many moods, a musician of varied colors,” Callier fused jazz, soul, folk and a bit of funk throughout a 50-year career.

Signed to Chess Records as a teen, Callier cut his debut single, “Look at Me Now,” in 1962, but a full album did not emerge until 1968 when “The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier” was released to little notice. He was prolific in the 1970s, releasing a trio of acclaimed (but ignored) albums that inspired the term “jazz-folk,” “Occasional Rain” (1972), “What Color Is Love” (1973) and “I Just Can’t Help Myself” (1974).

He resurfaced in 1978 with Elektra, releasing “Fire on Ice” and “Turn You to Love” a year later. The latter contained the minor hit “Sign of the Times,” which cracked the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 1979 at No. 78.

In the early 1980s, Callier put his music career on hold, becoming a computer programmer while focusing on raising his daughter. “When I got custody of my daughter I had to give up music to raise her properly, she needed me and the music business just didn’t seem like a viable option at that point,” he said, according to BBC News.

It was during this hiatus that a self-funded 1983 single by Callier, called “I Don’t Want to See Myself (Without You),” became a major hit on the British nightclub circuit. The uptempo song, with its shades of funk and disco, led to numerous concerts on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1997, Callier contributed to singer-songwriter Beth Orton’s “Best Bit EP” and two years later sang on her BRIT Awards-winning album “Central Reservation.” On Twitter, Orton paid tribute by pointing fans to a video of her and Callier performing the Tim Buckley classic, “Dolphins.”  read more…

Rodney Quinn, 89

Rodney S. Quinn, the Gorham native who retired as a lieutenant colonel after a 27-year military career and then rose to the job of Maine secretary of state, died Saturday, Oct. 27.

His family said he died at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House after being stricken with pneumonia two days before. His death follows that of his wife, Melba Quinn, earlier this month. They leave four children.

Quinn enjoyed a few careers. He was a college instructor, and in World War II flew with the Flying Tigers in China. During the Korean Conflict, he commanded an air transport squadron, and the University of Southern Maine was among the colleges where he taught. In recent years, Quinn wrote a column for Current Publishing newspapers.

“He had a fascinating life,” his daughter, Kate Gartland of Biddeford, said Monday.

Quinn and his wife had recently moved to Westbrook from Mighty Street in Gorham.

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