Prentiss Barnes
McCOMB, Miss. (AP)–Prentiss Barnes, who sang with the Moonglows and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, died Saturday in a weekend traffic accident in southwest Mississippi. He was 81.
Barnes, of Magnolia, was killed when his car wrecked on Mississippi 48, east of Magnolia.
Pike County Coroner Percy Pittman said Barnes was thrown from the car and died of massive trauma.
Barnes, a bass singer for the Moonglows, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2000. He’s also a member of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and a Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer.
The Moonglows’ R&B and doo-wop recordings include “Blue Velvet,” “Most of All,” “We Go Together” and “Ten Commandments of Love.” The McGuire Sisters recorded a pop version of their ’50s hit “Sincerely.”
The Moonglows disbanded in the mid-1960s. Barnes struck out on a solo career and headed for California in 1969. On the westward trip, Barnes was injured when a train struck his car in Texas. After the wreck, doctors amputated Barnes’ left arm. A shattered hip caused his right leg to shorten. It took two years and 10 operations before Barnes was well enough to return to Mississippi.
——
Alfred Cary Cox Sr.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)–Alfred Cary Cox Sr., captain of state rivals Clemson and South Carolina football teams in the 1940s, died Saturday, Clemson’s athletic department said. He was 83.
Cox was the only football captain for both teams. He was South Carolina’s captain in 1943. He then served in World War II as officer in charge in the Pacific and later was commissioned as lieutenant.
He enrolled at Clemson after the war and became captain of the Tigers, graduating in 1948. He also was an assistant coach to the late Frank Howard.
Cox, who was born in Dawson, Ga., spent most of his career in investment banking and business. He retired three years ago.
——
Helen Chenoweth-Hage
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP)–Former U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, who held “endangered salmon bakes” and once accused federal agents of using black helicopter gunships, died Monday in a car crash, her daughter said. She was 68.
Chenoweth-Hage, whose arch-conservative, often libertarian and sometimes extreme views made her popular with militia movements, was the passenger in a one-car crash near Tonopah, Nev., 172 miles northwest of Las Vegas, said her daughter Meg Chenoweth Keenan. No one else was seriously hurt, she said.
She ran for Congress in 1994 against Idaho incumbent Democrat Larry LaRocco and gained national attention when she held “endangered salmon bakes,” serving canned salmon and ridiculing the listing of Idaho salmon as an endangered species during fundraisers.
An advocate of smaller government and property rights, Chenoweth-Hage won the race and served a self-imposed three-term limit as a U.S. representative.
Chenoweth-Hage called for the disarming of federal resource agents in 1995 after claiming that they had landed black helicopters on private land in eastern Idaho to enforce the Endangered Species Act. The claim drew national criticism, and she later conceded she had never personally seen the now-infamous gunships.
——
Josh Graves
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)–“Uncle Josh” Graves, whose bluesy Dobro adorned hundreds of bluegrass and country records, died Saturday after a lengthy illness.
He was 79, according to his family, though various publications list different dates of birth.
The Tellico Plains native, born Burkett Howard Graves, was one of only a few professional Dobro players in the 1950s when he joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys. He played on some of the group’s most well-known recordings, including “Petticoat Junction,” which became the theme song for a 1960s TV show of the same name, and the bluegrass standard “Salty Dog Blues.”
The Dobro is similar in shape and size to a normal guitar, but it has a metal resonator plate on its face and is played with a bar, not the fingers of the left hand.
Graves inspired many other players, including modern Dobro masters Jerry Douglas and Mike Auldridge.
A member of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Honor, his influence went beyond bluegrass. He joined The Earl Scruggs Revue in the 1970s, becoming a key member of that country-rock group. And in the studio he contributed to albums by Kris Kristofferson, J.J. Cale, John Hiatt and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
In recent years, Graves, who was also a skilled songwriter and comedian, had been in ill health he blamed on years of smoking and drinking and had endured the amputation of his legs.
——
Bill Staton
SANFORD, N.C. (AP)–Bill Staton, whose legislative career spanned four decades and who served as an adviser to the late Gov. Terry Sanford, died Sunday at his home. He was 89.
Staton, who practiced law for 56 years and once served as city attorney for Carrboro and Sanford, had been in declining health and suffered from dementia, son Wayne Staton said Monday.
The Lee County Democrat joined the state House for one term in 1967 and moved to the Senate for several more until leaving the General Assembly in 1992. He was a leader in North Carolina’s Young Democrats group and a Democratic National Committee member from 1961 to 1965.
Staton also advised Sanford, later Duke University’s president and a U.S. senator, particularly in the years leading up to his gubernatorial election in 1960. The two became close political allies after Staton helped Sanford become state president of the Young Democrats in the late 1940s, according to a Sanford biography.
A World War II Army veteran who served in the Battle of the Bulge, Staton received the Bronze Star and ultimately rose to colonel in the North Carolina National Guard.
——
Andras Suto
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)–Andras Suto, a writer and human rights advocate for his fellow ethnic Hungarians in Romania who was persecuted by Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime, died Saturday. He was 79.
Suto died at a Budapest hospital where he was being treated for cancer, said Laszlo Cselenyi, Suto’s son-in-law.
Western Romania, including Transylvania, was part of Hungary until World War I and still has a large ethnic Hungarian population, whose fate has since often defined relations between the two countries.
Suto for decades spoke up when the human rights of ethnic Hungarians in Romania were threatened, including attempts at forced integration, efforts by Ceausescu’s communist regime to eliminate Hungarian-language schools and plans to bulldoze villages, many of them predominantly Hungarian.
In March 1990, Suto was nearly beaten to death and lost an eye during clashes between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians in the Romanian city of Tirgu Mures after Ceausescu was ousted in December 1989.
In his works, Suto wrote much about the ordeals of living as a minority–often in humorous, melancholic tones–but he also called for the peaceful coexistence between ethnic groups.
From 1980, the Ceausescu regime banned his books and plays, but they continued to be published and performed to great critical and popular acclaim in Hungary.
Among his best-known works are the semi-autobiographical “My Mother Promises Light Dreams,” the essay collection “Let The Words Come To Me” and a play “Advent On Harghita.” His diary “An Eye For A Word” was published in 1993.
Suto was a member of the Romanian parliament from 1965 to 1977 and vice president of the Romanian Writers’ Association from 1974 to 1982. He received numerous state and literary awards both in Romania and Hungary.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
