| Author | Message | ||
  SisDetroit (sis) 5-Doyen Username: sis Post Number: 275 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.42.211.240 |
Ray Charles Funeral is being broadcast live on the Internet. http://nbc4columbus.feedroom.com/iframeset.jsp?ord=381058 (Message edited by sis on June 18, 2004) | ||
SisDetroit (sis) 5-Doyen Username: sis Post Number: 276 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.42.211.240 |
http://nbc4columbus.feedroom.c om/iframeset.jsp?ord=381058 | ||
SisDetroit (sis) 5-Doyen Username: sis Post Number: 277 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.42.211.240 |
Are you listening to the new recording by Ray Charles and Johnny Mathis "Somewhere Over The Rainbow?" They are opening the casket for a last viewing. | ||
motesartsound (uncle_derrald) 1-Arriviste Username: uncle_derrald Post Number: 4 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 66.127.78.58 |
Sis Detroit: I watched the interview for 90 minutes (10:30 pacific time) this morning, and it was one lovely tribute. I found out from the KNBC-TV 4 webpage last night indicating that there will be a live telecast/webcast on the following day. NPR Radio had did the same thing too, which I wasn't aware of. | ||
DyvaNaye (westside314) 6-Zenith Username: westside314 Post Number: 669 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 209.212.74.198 |
I didnt see a thing...and Im mad about it too. It is like his death did not even occur here on the East Coast, but we has to watch that 'RR-fest' until the end...what do I click on Sis? | ||
dvdmike (dvdmike) 4-Laureate Username: dvdmike Post Number: 148 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.253.187.69 |
I saw Ray perform at the International Ampitheater in Chicago in 1975 during the Black Expo on a bill with War and Choice Four. While Ray was on, two guys in the front row were talking. Ray leaned over and without missing a beat said, "Be cool brotha, this is MY show." | ||
~medusa~ (~medusa) 5-Doyen Username: ~medusa Post Number: 203 Registered: 3-2004 Posted From: 68.79.99.20 |
Yes, I've been watching the Ohio News forever and so far nothing about Ray or his Funeral. How do we go to the sight of the Funeral services? | ||
Dinelle (dinelle_watson) 4-Laureate Username: dinelle_watson Post Number: 102 Registered: 3-2004 Posted From: 65.6.74.203 |
Hi guys. I'm sorry if I wasn't on the computer most of day. My great-grandmother's funeral was today as well as Ray Charles. Here's my version of the obituary. Rose Josefine "Mother" Anatole-Steele July 11, 1908-June 11, 2004 My Great-grandma Rose was born in New Orleans, LA on July 11, 1908. She was the third child of the late Theresa & Octave Anatole. She married Chester O.V. Steele. To my surprise, they had 10 kids. I thought she had 9, according to my grandmother, Mary Steele. She witnessed 18 presidents, 2 world wars, segregation, integration, and a lot more in ninety years. She was a member of St. Raymond Catholic Church and ST. John #5 Faith Church until illness stopped her from going to church. Mother lived a long, full life. She lived to be 95. Her homegoing was sort of a early birthday celebration since her birthday is on July 11th. She lived a good, long life. Everyone loved her. Survivors include her children, Esther Henderson, Rita Williams, Eunice Western, and Rosemary, Preston, and Anatole Steele; nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, 37 grandchildren, 61 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, Chester O.V. Steele, her brothers, Octave and John Anatole, and her sons, Chester Jr., Hamilton, and Leroy Steele, and her daughter, Rubystine Morris. I loved her. Everyone did. And she was always in her mind. Two years ago on her birthday, I thought that she was 93. Everyone thought that she was 90. Until she called and told me and told me that she was 94. I was shocked. Everyone was. It was really funny. I just have to think she's in Heaven with the rest of my family. | ||
Charise (mistrivia1) 4-Laureate Username: mistrivia1 Post Number: 121 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 198.81.26.46 |
May your Great-Grandmother now rest in peace. She may have a conversation or two with Ray and a host of others  P.S. WOW that's a large family TREE!!!!! | ||
Charise (mistrivia1) 4-Laureate Username: mistrivia1 Post Number: 122 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 198.81.26.46 |
P.S. I wished I had been off today, so that I could have seen Ray's funeral. When I got home this evening 6/18 Calif. is 3hrs behind Detroit, all I have seen is small glimpses!!! Darn it! The Media is something else!!!!! I saw Stevie speak a little bit on Headline News and I saw him and B.B King sing a little on BET.. | ||
Dinelle (dinelle_watson) 4-Laureate Username: dinelle_watson Post Number: 103 Registered: 3-2004 Posted From: 65.6.71.176 |
Thanks, Charise. BTW, that's only the half of my maternal family tree. With my whole family together, including my stepparents' families, our family's pretty big we're pretty much a close-knit family. And a very extended one. | ||
Soul Sister (soul_sister) 6-Zenith Username: soul_sister Post Number: 827 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 65.43.165.220 |
Hi Everybody; This report of "Ray Charles Funeral" was on the front page of Cleveland's Plaindealer newspaper:  | ||
Soul Sister (soul_sister) 6-Zenith Username: soul_sister Post Number: 828 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 65.43.165.220 |
Continued story:  | ||
Soul Sister (soul_sister) 6-Zenith Username: soul_sister Post Number: 829 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 65.43.165.220 |
Seems the funeral was a joyest occasion that I'm sure "RC" would have been very pleased with. R.I.P. Brother Ray. Hi Dinelle; I'm sure your Great Grandmother is resting peaceful in God's house, take comfort in that. Hope you have a good day today. S.S. | ||
sg (thelastsupreme) 1-Arriviste Username: thelastsupreme Post Number: 1 Registered: 5-2004 Posted From: 198.81.26.46 |
to hear the entire service go to http://www.npr.org/features/fe ature.php?wfId=1964165 washingtonpost.com Heavenly Choir Through the Voices of His Many Friends, Ray Charles Is Still Singing By William Booth Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 19, 2004; Page C01 LOS ANGELES, June 18 The only thing bad about the funeral for Ray Charles was that he died. The ceremony here Friday morning at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church was beautiful, the sweetest balance of joy and sorrow. B.B. King sat on a stool by the coffin and begged the congregation's indulgence as he pulled out a big white handkerchief and wiped away his tears, saying "forgive me a little bit," and some of the 1,500 mourners shouted out, "that's all right, baby, that's all right," like a mother soothing a child. And then the big man began to sing "Please Accept My Love," his fingers on the strings of his electric guitar, in a rasp and a lullaby: "I don't even know your name, but I love you just the same. If I could hold your hand, I'd make you understand . . ." The two-hour memorial service was about the restorative and transforming power of music to help and to heal, said the Rev. Cecil L. "Chip" Murray, the church's pastor and a friend of Charles. "Eyesight sees what is on the outside," Murray said of the blind singer, pianist and composer. "Insight sees what is on the inside." And the mourners called back in response, "Praise Jesus!" Murray worked himself up and let it go: "Ray Charles saw the dream, he didn't see the nightmare. 'I don't know about you,' says Ray. 'But I saw the light. I saw the light.' " And the church rose to its feet. Among the performers for Ray Charles Robinson, who died last week at 73 of liver disease, were Stevie Wonder, Wynton Marsalis, Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell and saxman David "Fathead" Newman. An amazing rendition of the Lord's Prayer was sung by Susaye Greene, a former member of Charles's backup singers, the Raelettes. From the pulpit, Clint Eastwood said kind words and so did Cicely Tyson and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and condolences from former president Bill Clinton and producer Quincy Jones were read. The flowers in the church came from around the world, from the Rolling Stones, Ice Cube, Van Morrison, and the Oak Ridge Boys -- for such was the eclectic sweep of Charles's music across genres and generations, in soul, R&B, blues, gospel, country, jazz and funk. The service was at the place known as FAME Church, in central L.A., a tough neighborhood far away from Beverly Hills, where Charles lived. FAME's is one of the oldest African American congregations in the city. It is a crossroads of religion, politics, entertainment and social action, where the stained-glass windows showcase the biblical saints along with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. Its Sunday services have hosted a long line of aspirants for higher office. In attendance Friday were the city's mayor, James Hahn, its chief of police, the county sheriff and half the city council, plus Little Richard and Johnny Mathis. Clinton himself has been in the church a dozen times over his career. It is a church built to play music in, with a piano and drum set as bookends to the altar, the place wired with speakers, and excellent acoustics. The Crenshaw High School Elite Choir, in blue-and-gold robes, rocked the house, while matronly ushers in white gloves and sashes helped the mourners to their seats. One of Charles's 12 children, Robert Robinson, now a minister at Great Faith Ministries, told the audience, "If you want to do something for my family today, get up and shout hallelujah!" They did. Jackson read from Psalm 23 about fearing no evil in the valley of the shadow of death, but he said that "death and the grave is not the end -- it is a pause of rest before we cross the river." Jackson paused and then added: "Heaven wanted some music, and sent for Ray Charles. Now Heaven has a maestro." Cicely Tyson, a lifelong friend of "Brother Ray," as many referred to him, read from a poem by Roscoe Lee Browne, "I will sing to you if the birds do not come," and the actress, trembling, almost whispered, "If the birds do not come, Ray, will you sing to me?" The saxophone was played by Newman, whose reedwork was breathy, like an old man weeping on a bar stool, as he played off the melody of "Georgia on My Mind," one of Charles's biggest hits. The singer's manager, Joe Adams, said Billy Preston's doctors at Cedars-Sinai Hospital would not permit the singer to attend. "He cried like a baby this morning," Adams said. Neither could Quincy Jones attend; he was in Russia. But he asked that the Charles version of "My Buddy" be played: "Nights are long since you went away, I think about you all through the day, my buddy." Adams then introduced Clint Eastwood. "To look at him, you're like kind of a square," he said. "But in reality, he's kind of a swinger." Eastwood, in fact, is known as a jazz lover. "He was called a genius," Eastwood said. "I don't know what a genius is." But he said Charles had talent, plenty of it, "and nobody had a stronger work ethic than Ray Charles," who performed more than 10,000 concerts in his career and had not missed a tour in 53 consecutive years, until he was forced to cancel his remaining travel in 2003 for health reasons. "I was very proud to be his friend," Eastwood said. Dressed in black, Willie Nelson came to the podium, and accompanied by a piano sang "Georgia" for Charles, slowing the tempo way, way down, keeping his phrasing sparse, lonesome as a stretch of empty road. When he reached the lyrics, early in the song, about how "a song of you comes as sweet and clear as moonlight through the pines," Nelson wavered, but got through it, and then the harmonica player wailed, and someone in the church was praising it, saying, "Right now, all right now, blow it, blow it!" After he was finished, Nelson told the story about how he and Charles loved to play chess (Charles was an expert) and how the blind musician always, always beat him. Finally, Nelson said he pleaded with his opponent, "Next time we play, Ray, can we turn on the lights?" Stevie Wonder came next, and said, "I never thought I'd write a song that Ray Charles would sing, but God knew more." Wonder said he was sad that Charles had not lived long enough to see hate and injustice leave this world. He sang "I Won't Complain," a gospel tune. "Sometimes my clouds hang low and I can hardly see the road," goes the verse, but he picked it up with the refrain, "I say thank you Lord, I say thank you Lord," and the seats in the balcony of the church literally shuddered and bounced with the people clapping and stomping, and the choir came in. While the mourners read from their memorial pamphlets an obituary for Charles, a recording was played of his rendition of "America the Beautiful," with its great changes of phrase and lyric, turning rote into heartfelt, reimagining the song: "Wait a minute! I'm talking about America, sweet America . . . " Near the close, Wynton Marsalis, the great jazz trumpeter and composer from New Orleans, rose and played his horn, one-handed, before the casket and then strode down the aisle, the Crescent City jazz funeral style, and the mood bounced back. And finally, they ended, with a recording of a duet by Johnny Mathis and Charles, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," from the last album he recorded, still unreleased, and mourners walked past the open casket. And there was Ray Charles, in a crisp black tux and tie, his hands -- those strong fingers, thick with muscle -- folded upon his belly, a pair of dark, cool, wraparound shades around his eyes, and his expression: It wasn't a smile, but it wasn't a frown, either. Charles was buried later at Inglewood Cemetery. En route, his hearse briefly paused outside the doors of his recording studio, now a historic landmark. � 2004 The Washington Post Company | ||
Soul Sister (soul_sister) 6-Zenith Username: soul_sister Post Number: 832 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 65.43.165.220 |
Hi Susaye; All I can say is WOW! That was so moving. Thank You So Much for that. S.S. Jeanie & Jimmy Scott |
