Al Jackson Jr.

popular name: Scrapper Blackwell

date_of_death: October 7, 1962

age: 59

cause_of_death: Murdered (solved but no arrest)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Scrapper Blackwell, together with Leroy Carr are arguably the two most underrated blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. What is undeniable is the two together created some of the most recorded blues classics including How Long, How Long Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama and When the Sun Goes Down

popular name: Buddy Rich

date_of_death: April 2, 1987

age: 69

cause_of_death: Respiratory and cardiac failure related to a malignant brain tumor

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Beyond his flamboyant, sometimes volatile character, beyond his classic wardrobe and his status as the preferred guest on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson Buddy Rich was a magnificent drummer. His recording and performing resume - Bunny Berigan, Harry James, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum - is unparalleled by any other drummer living or dead.

popular name: Gene Autry

date_of_death: October 2, 1998

age: 91

cause_of_death: Lymphoma

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Gene Autry, nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was the owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997. From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films, and between 1950 and 1956 hosted The Gene Autry Show television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true. Autry was also one of the most important pioneering figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. His singing cowboy films were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience. In addition to his signature song, "Back in the Saddle Again" and his hit "At Mail Call Today", Autry is still remembered for his Christmas songs, most especially his biggest hit "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" as well as "Frosty the Snowman", "Here Comes Santa Claus", and "Up on the House Top". Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.