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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4668
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 12:20 am: | 
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Platters Singer Zola Taylor Dies at 69
By ANDREW GLAZER
May 1, 2007
LOS ANGELES -- Zola Taylor, who broke gender barriers in the 1950s as a member of The Platters, harmonizing with her male colleagues on hits like "The Great Pretender," has died, her nephew said Tuesday. She was 69.
Taylor, who later gained attention of a different sort as one of three women who claimed to be pop idol Frankie Lymon's widow, died Monday, said her nephew Alfie Robinson. She had been bedridden following several strokes and died at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside County from complications of pneumonia, he said.
Founding Platters member Herb Reed said he spotted Taylor, the sister of Cornell Gunter of the Coasters, rehearsing with a girl group in 1955 and knew immediately she had the charisma and vocal chops the R&B group needed.
The all-male group had just signed with Mercury after its single "Only You" topped the charts and its manager thought they needed a female voice to soften their sound.
"She was a very pretty young lady and what a great, great smile," Reed told The Associated Press. "And she had this baby voice that everyone liked."
"The Great Pretender" raced to the No. 1 spot on both R & B and pop music charts in the U.S. and Europe, according to "The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul" by Irwin Stambler.
"It was a great surprise to everyone," Reed said. "We were the first Afro-American group to have a girl singer. That was the talk of the nation. All of the sudden, other groups started looking for girls."
But the Platters' success began to fizzle after 1959, when four members were arrested in Cincinnati. Reed said he had been out of touch with Taylor since the early 1960s.
Taylor was back in the spotlight in the 1980s when she and two other women all claimed to be Lymon's widow and fought over his royalties. Lymon, a juvenile pop sensation in the 1950s with such hits as "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?," had died of a drug overdose in 1968 at age 25.
The courts eventually sided with one of the other women. The drama was a focal point in the 1998 Lymon biopic "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." Halle Berry played Taylor.
Robinson, Taylor's closest known living relative, said his aunt continued touring with other lesser-known acts until 1996 and wed two other times. Her last husband died in 1982, he said. She had no children.
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-obit-taylor,0,6128731.story
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Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 1548
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 01:14 pm: |
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I can't believe she died. She was living here in Inglewood for the longest time. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4318
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 01:20 pm: |
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You could hardly hear her in the mix.
They never let her do a solo did they? |
Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2125
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 02:49 pm: |
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She was still young. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8512
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 05:33 pm: |
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I can't believe that YOU think 69 years is young. |
Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2127
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 06:22 am: |
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Several strokes and pneumonia? She was too young to be quite so sick and drop dead (probably exhausted from all the sicknesses) like that. Most folks in the seventies still make their own groceries and live alone. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8520
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 12:57 pm: |
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How do you know this? Where do you get the idea that most senior citizens don't have spouses and extended families and support groups? |
Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2131
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 03:50 pm: |
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Live alone as in not with a caretaker. Do things alone as in they can take care of themselves for their needs, but stay in touch with friends and families for social reasons. Not all of my friends (or family members, or even associates) are under 65. Even when I volunteered at the Atlanta airport, maybe 80% of their volunteer staff were over 70. |
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