I LOVED Jackie Wilson's music. It was really sad how he died.
Snip:
September 1970 Wilson's oldest son, 16-year-old Jackie Jr., was shot and killed during a confrontation on the porch of a Detroit neighbors' home.
On the night of September 29, 1975 while performing at the Latin Casino near Cherry Hill, New Jersey Wilson was stricken with a massive heart attack. One of the first to reach Jackie was Cornell Gunter of the Coasters group who immediately noticed he wasn't breathing. Gunter applied resuscitation and got him breathing again. An ambulance quickly got him to the nearby hospital where he remained in a coma for over three months.
Jackie gradually improved to the stage of semi-coma state, but obviously he had suffered severe brain damage and, at 41, a tremendous career was ended. Although he never uttered another word, he remained clinging to life for a further eight and a quarter years. He remained hospitalized until his death on January 21, 1984, at the age of forty-nine.
A tremendous tragedy and great loss. I too loved Jackie.
A true Flaming Star extinguished too quickly.
Another sad story is that of the great Sam Cooke. Like many black pop heroes, he started out as a gospel singer. All these greats of blues, R&B, and jazz were truly American. There is nothing on any other continent to which their genius can be directly traced.