Free Republic

B.B. Cunningham, a longtime keyboardist and backup singer for legendary rocker Jerry Lee Lewis as well as leader of his own band the Hombres, was gunned down early Sunday morning in Memphis. He was 70. Per Memphis' Commercial Appeal, Cunningham had been working as a security guard at an apartment complex in the southeast part of the city when he heard a gunshot in the neighboring Cherry Crest Apartments around 2 a.m. and went to check it out. Upon arrival, officers found the bodies of the musician and an unidentified 16-year-old boy, both of whom sustained gunshot wounds. Authorities are...

Chris Bram is the author of the novel Gods and Monsters. Gore Vidal was famous for his hates: academia, presidents, whole portions of the American public and, most notably, Truman Capote. Yet he could be incredibly generous to other writer friends. He wrote beautiful, appreciative essays about Tennessee Williams and Dawn Powell. He was a man of many facets and endless contradictions. He achieved his first notoriety in 1948 when he was only 22, for his novel, The City and the Pillar. It was the fullest, most frank portrait of gay American life at that time. The book wasn't autobiographical...

Rodney King's fiancée is telling friends Rodney had been drinking all day Saturday ... and had smoked weed in the hours leading up to his death ... sources close to King tell TMZ. According to our sources, King's fiancée, Cynthia Kelley, is telling friends King was at the house all day drinking, and he smoked marijuana at some point, before she went to went to bed at 2:00 AM.

Ray Bradbury, the writer whose expansive flights of fantasy and vividly rendered space-scapes have provided the world with one of the most enduring speculative blueprints for the future, has died. He was 91. Bradbury's daughter confirmed his death to the Associated Press on Wednesday morning. She said her father died Tuesday night in Southern California. Author of more than 27 novels and story collections — most famously “The Martian Chronicles,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Dandelion Wine” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes” — and more than 600 short stories, Bradbury has frequently been credited with elevating the often maligned reputation of science...

TMZ is reporting that famed TV producer, and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” host Dick Clark has died at the age of 82 from an apparent massive heart attack. There are few details surrounding his death at this time. Clark suffered a stroke in 2004, forcing him to retire from hosting “New Years’ Rockin’ Eve.” Ryan Seacrest took over in 2006

Andrew Breitbart had a long history with Free Republic, from its early days and first FReeper gathering Los Angeles to the present.Using the screen name andrew, Breitbart joined FR on February 9, 1998 after lurking "long before" then.Andrew's posting history is captured back to September 8, 2001. His last post on FR was September 15, 2004. Even though he stopped posting to FR, Andrew maintained relations with people he met through FR and always had a kind word to say about the site when FR was brought up.I wrote for Andrew's Big sites and had limited dealings with him as...