Elvin Shepherd

popular name: Bob Wills

date_of_death: May 13, 1975

age: 70

cause_of_death: Complications from a stroke and pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Bob Wills was a bandleader, fiddler, singer, and songwriter who is the most famous exponent of the popular musical genre now known as western swing, which synthesized ragtime, traditional fiddling, New Orleans jazz, blues, Mexican songs, and big band swing. Wills, along with his band the Texas Playboys, toured and recorded nonstop throughout the 1940s and early 1950s amassing dozens of hits including "Steel Guitar Rag", "New San Antonio Rose", "Smoke On The Water", "New Spanish Two Step" and "Faded Love." Wills had a heart attack in 1962 and a second one the next year, which forced him to disband the Playboys, although Wills continued to perform solo. He was recording an album with fan Merle Haggard in 1973 when a stroke left him comatose for 17 months until his death in 1975. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1999.

popular name: R. L. Burnside

date_of_death: September 1, 2005

age: 78

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: R. L. Burnside was a Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played music for much of his life but received little recognition before the early 1990s. During his resurgence in popularity he won 4 W.C. Handy Blues Awards and was nominated for another 11 awards in 8 years as well as one for a Grammy. In 2014 he was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis, Tennessee. For the last decade of his life, Burnside was championed by the international media, earned six figure sums and outsold every other black blues icon except BB King and the late John Lee Hooker.

popular name: Gioachino Rossini

date_of_death: November 13, 1868

age: 76

cause_of_death: Colorectal cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Gioachino Antonio Rossini was the most significant Italian composer of the first half of the nineteenth century. Although he wrote many songs including chamber music and piano pieces, Rossini is most famous for his 39 operas, in particular his comic operas for which he set new standards of composition. Gioachino Rossini’s most famous works include The Barber of Seville (1816), Cinderella (La Cenerentola) (1817) and William Tell (1829). Influenced by the French, he broke traditional forms of opera using unusual rhythms and bring the orchestra to the fore, however his style was tempered by changing tastes and a move away from a more formal ‘classicist’ style to Romanticism. When the family moved to Lugo in 1802, Rossini began studying music with a local priest and was inspired by his collection of Mozart and Haydn. A quick learner, by the age of 12 Rossini had composed six sonatas and two years later he joined Bologna’s Philharmonic School and composed his first opera – Demetrio e Polibio (1806). In 1810 alone, Rossini staged his first opera in 1810 to great success and financial reward and this was quickly followed by three more operas in addition to directing Haydn’s The Seasons in Bologna. In 1812, his two-act comedy La pietra del paragone ran for 53 performances at La Scala in Milan bringing him more financial benefits. Gioachino Rossini announced his retirement from opera in 1829 at the age of 37. However, he continued to compose music after his retirement. Rossini's final opera was Guillaume Tell, which premiered in 1829. Afterwards he negotiated a contract with King Charles X of France for a lifetime annuity in exchange for his retirement. Unfortunately, the July Revolution of 1830 deposed King Charles X and deprived Rossini of his pension. Rossini returned to Paris in 1855 and wrote Petite messe solennelle in 1864. Four years later he  died in France in 1868 after an unsuccessful operation for colorectal cancer. He was buried at Santa Croce Basilica in Florence, Italy.