this bummed me out

Rest in peace amigo

Ibrahim Ferrer Dead at 78

Susan Hopkins reports:
World-renowned Cuban vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, best known for his part in the wildly popular Buena Vista Social Club, died Saturday of multiple organ failure. Ferrer was 78, and in the middle of the resurgence of a career that spanned more than six decades.

Easily recognizable by his hip Kangol cap and gray moustache, Ferrer began singing at the ripe young age of 14, and capped his career at the ripe old age of 72 with-- of all things-- a Best New Artist award at the Latin Grammys. In 2000. Did we mention he was 72?

As his career began, Ferrer had success singing with big bands, but between the late 1950s and early 1990s he shined shoes and sold peanuts in Havana to make ends meet. When legendary chameleon-slash-guitarist Ry Cooder approached him and others to form the Social Club, a collective of Cuban musicians largely silenced by you-know-who, Ferrer initially declined, later telling Nonesuch Records' that "I felt... disappointed by my life in music." He did change his mind, though, and his clear, passionate falsetto and flair for improvisation were a perfect match for the collective's jazzy Latin sound.

The Club, having released only one album together, won the Grammy in 1998 for best traditional tropical Latin performance, and the documentary of their staggering rise to fame and fortune became a hit of its own and was nominated for an Academy Award. Not too shabby.

After a solo career consisting of two albums (the latter of which helped earn the aforementioned Latin Grammy), Ferrer occasionally went on tour, which is what he was doing this week before he fell ill. Ferrer suffered from emphysema, and had entered a hospital in Havana for treatment of gastroenteritis. He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Caridad Diaz, and countless fans and friends.


didn't bum me out as much, he's a journalist, he knew what smoking could do to him, but he was a man of integrity and i liked his news delivery (just didn't touch me in any way-catholic or not)

Peter Jennings dies of lung cancer
Longtime ABC News anchor was 67

Monday, August 8, 2005; Posted: 11:51 a.m. EDT (15:51 GMT)


Peter Jennings, 1938-2005

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Career:
• August 3, 1964, joins ABC News
• 1965-1968, Anchors "ABC Evening News"
• 1968-1974, Beirut, Lebanon bureau chief, establishing first American television news bureau in Arab world
• 1975-1976, Anchors "A.M. America," predecessor to "Good Morning America"
• 1977, Chief foreign correspondent
• 1978-1983, Chief foreign correspondent for ABC News and foreign desk anchor for "World News Tonight"
• 1983-2005, Anchor/senior editor for "World News Tonight"

Books:
• "The Century" (with Todd Brewster)
• "In Search of America"

Awards:
Sixteen Emmys; two George Foster Peabody Awards; several Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards; several Overseas Press Club Awards. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS

Peter Jennings
or Create Your Own
Manage Alerts | What Is This? NEW YORK (CNN) -- Veteran newsman Peter Jennings was remembered Monday as an outstanding journalist, a hard worker and "a man of conscience and integrity."

The longtime anchor of ABC "World News Tonight" died Sunday, some four months after he announced on the air that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Jennings was 67.

"Good Morning America" co-host Charles Gibson announced late Sunday that Jennings had died in his New York City apartment. His wife, Kayce, his children Elizabeth and Christopher, and his sister were at his side, Gibson said.

He read a statement from the family that said: "Peter died with his family around him, without pain and in peace. He knew he had lived a good life."

ABC News President David Westin told reporters Monday that it was a sad day at the network where Jennings had worked for more than 40 years.

"Peter, in addition to being an outstanding journalist, an outstanding leader, was also a very warm and decent man and a great friend and colleague to so many of us," Westin said. "We all got to see how professional he was on the air, and sometimes his urbanity could be mistaken for a certain distance. But in fact he was a very sensitive, warm, decent man who cared passionately for what he did, for what all of us do -- for reporting the news every day of the year."