Joey Ramone

popular name: Melvin Franklin

date_of_death: February 23, 1995

age: 52

cause_of_death: Multiple health issues including rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, necrotizing fasciitis, seizures and heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: It has been over five decades since The Temptations were first founded and in that time there have been 22 different members of the group, but it is the ‘Classic Five’ (and the post-Classic Five, Dennis Edwards) line-up that most fans consider the best. Central to that line-up was the incredible bass voice of Melvin Franklin, dubbed by the group and by their fans as ‘the world’s greatest bass singer’.

popular name: Dinah Washington

date_of_death: December 14, 1963

age: 39

cause_of_death: Accidental overdose - prescription diet and sleep medication mixed with alcohol

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Dinah Washington was an American singer and pianist who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". It all started when she won a talent show at the age of 15. Shortly after she teamed up with Lionel Hampton and stayed with his orchestra until 1946. Going solo she released a diverse catalog of hits for the mainstream black population including Hank William's "Cold, Cold Heart," the Orioles "It's Too Soon To Know" and her biggest hit of the 1940s "Baby, Get Lost". Washington continued her chart success maintaining a spot on the Top 10 R&B charts from 1949 through 1955 with "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "What A Difference A Day Makes". In July 1963, football great Dick "Night Train" Lane married jazz singer Dinah Washington at a ceremony in Las Vegas. It was the sixth marriage for Washington and the second for Lane. Just five months later early in the morning of December 14, 1963, Lane went to sleep with Washington who awoke later to find her slumped over and not responsive. She was pronounced her dead at the scene at age 39. An autopsy later showed a lethal combination of secobarbital and amobarbital, prescriptions for her insomnia and diet, which contributed to her death. She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She was laid to rest at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

popular name: Pete Drake

date_of_death: July 29, 1988

age: 55

cause_of_death: Emphysema

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Pete Drake was one of the greatest pedal-steel musicians who played on 118 Gold and Platinum albums with artists ranging from Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Marty Robbins, Elvis Presley, Ernst Tubb and George Jones. His session work alone on Bob Dylan's "John Wesley Harding" and "Nashville Skyline" made him the choice session player in Nashville from the 1960s through the late 1980s. Equally in demand in the studio and at the Grand Ole Opry, Drake was always an innovator. He has been credited with popularizing the "talking" guitar long before Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck made it to the airwaves. As Drake's career and reputation grew, he branched out into production, publishing and became the owner of a highly successful recording studio on Music Row in Nashville. His work with Ernst Tubb (with whom he produced 20 of Tubb's greatest hits) earns him a place as a leader of the Nashville Sound. Pete Drake was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2021, 33 years after his death.