Lenoir, J.B.
Music
Age 38
March 5, 1929 - April 29, 1967
Salem Missionary Baptist Church / Monticello / Mississippi / USA / North America
Monticello area native J. B. Lenoir was a distinctive blues artist, in both his high-pitched singing style and the candid political critiques in many of his song lyrics and is best remembered for his 1955 hit “Mama, Talk to Your...
Lewis, Furry
Music
Age 88
March 8, 1893 - September 14, 1981
Hollywood Cemetery / Memphis / Tennessee / USA / North America
A notable guitarist in both the bottleneck and finger-picking styles, Furry was a country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee whose greatest productivity came late in life during the folk blues revival of th...
Lightnin' Hopkins
Music
Age 69
March 15, 1912 - January 30, 1982
Forest Park Cemetery (Lawndale) / Houston / Texas / USA / North America
Sam Lightnin' Hopkins began his blues trail as Blind Lemon Jefferson's guide before spending 30 years on the weekend juke joint circuit. As a soloist who loved to drink, smoke, gamble, fight and chase women, Hopkins had the scars ...
Little, Booker Jr.
Music
Age 23
April 2, 1938 - October 5, 1961
New Park Cemetery / Memphis / Tennessee / USA / North America
Booker Little, twenty-three year-old composer, arranger and trumpet player has lately come to demonstrate, in recordings and as the musical director of the Max Roach group, a talent that was taken too early. When he died suddenly ...
Lockwood Jr., Robert
Music
Age 91
March 27, 1915 - November 21, 2006
Riverside Cemetery / Cleveland / Ohio / USA / North America
Robert Lockwood Jr. was a Delta blues guitarist who recorded for Chess Records and other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the only guitarist to have learned to play directly from Robert Johnson. Robert Lockwood was on...
Loewe, Frederick
Music
Age 86
June 10, 1901 - February 1, 1988
Desert Memorial Park / Cathedral City / California / USA / North America
Frederick Loewe was was an Austrian-American composer who collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner on a series of Broadway musicals, including classic musicals like Gigi, Camelot, My Fair Lady, Paint Your Wagon and Brigadoon. A ...
London, Julie
Music
Age 74
September 26, 1926 - October 18, 2000
Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
American singer and actress whose career spanned more than 40 years. Julie London was known for her sultry vocals, and her recording of "Cry Me a River" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. As a successful actress, L...
Longhair, Professor
Music
Age 61
December 19, 1918 - January 30, 1980
Mount Olivet Cemetery / New Orleans / Louisiana / USA / North America
Professor Longhair (or "Fess" for short) was a Louisiana born singer and pianist who performed New Orleans blues. He was active in two distinct periods, first in the heyday of early rhythm and blues and later in the resurgence of ...
Lopes, Lisa "Lefteye"
Music
Age 30
May 27, 1971 - April 25, 2002
Hillandale Memorial Gardens / Lithonia / Georgia / USA / North America
For many, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes simply was TLC who jacked the pop charts with a blend of soul and rap that preached safe sex and self-reliance. Two years after their first album was released, TLC went on to garner internationa...
Lunceford, Jimmie
Music
Age 45
June 6, 1902 - July 12, 1947
Elmwood Cemetery / Memphis / Tennessee / USA / North America
Jimmie Lunceford was one of the most underrated American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleaders in the golden years of the Swing Era. Any list of the greatest bands of the swing era usually starts with those of Count Basie, Benny G...
Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr.
Music
Age 54
April 20, 1951 - July 1, 2005
George Washington Memorial Park / Paramus / New Jersey / USA / North America
Luther Vandross was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. Throughout his career, he achieved eleven consecutive RIAA-certified platinum albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide. After a short s...
Lymon, Frankie
Music
Age 25
September 30, 1942 - February 27, 1968
Saint Raymond's Cemetery / The Bronx / New York / USA / North America
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were five kids from Washington Heights, just north of Harlem where they sang doo-wop under the streetlight on the corner of 165th and Amsterdam. After just a few months of rehearsal they cut their f...
Manuel, Dean
Music
Age 30
January 1, 1934 - July 31, 1964
Spring Hill Cemetery / Nashville / Tennessee / USA / North America
"Dockie" Dean Manuel played piano for several noteworthy bands of the mid-twentieth century both on the West Coast and in Nashville, Tennessee. While attempting to re-establish himself in the West Coast country music scene after r...
Manzarek, Ray
Music
Age 74
February 12, 1939 - May 20, 2013
Cremated / North America
Ray Manzarek was an American singer, producer, film director, and author. He was best known as the co-founder of the rock band The Doors with singer and lyricist Jim Morrison. Manzarek was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of F...
Marley, Bob
Music
Age 36
February 6, 1945 - May 11, 1981
Bob Marley Centre and Mausoleum / Nine Mile / Jamaica / North America
Bob Marley was a Jamaican singer, songwriter and musician whose brilliant and ongoing distillation of early ska, rock steady, and reggae musical forms blossomed in the 1970s into an electrifying rock-influenced hybrid that made hi...
McDowell, Mississippi
Music
Age 68
January 12, 1904 - July 3, 1972
Hammond Hill Baptist Church / Senatobia / Mississippi / USA / North America
Inspired by seeing the legend Charley Patton playing in a juke joint, McDowell secured his reputation without a back catalog of historic blues recordings but rather by playing around the world to enthusiastic fans of low country b...
McKernan, Ron
Music
Age 27
September 8, 1945 - March 8, 1973
Alta Mesa Memorial Park / Palo Alto / California / USA / North America
At the height of the Grateful Dead's breakout success in the early 1970s, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan served as a driving force behind the jam band's legendary acclaim. The vocalist and keyboardist proved responsible for the band's blu...
McPhatter, Clyde
Music
Age 39
November 15, 1932 - June 13, 1972
George Washington Memorial Park / Paramus / New Jersey / USA / North America
Clyde McPhatter was an American rhythm and blues, soul, and rock and roll singer. He was one of the most widely imitated R&B singers of the 1950s and early 1960s and was a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and rhythm and blues....
McTell, Blind Willie
Music
Age 61
May 5, 1898 - August 19, 1959
Jones Grove Baptist Church / Thomson / Georgia / USA / North America
“Blind Willie” McTell was one of the great blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s who continued to play through the 1950s. Displaying an extraordinary range on the twelve-string guitar, this Atlanta-based musician recorded mo...
Memphis Minnie
Music
Age 76
June 3, 1897 - August 6, 1973
New Hope M.B. Church / Walls / Mississippi / USA / North America
She transcended both gender and genre. Her recording career reached from the 1920s heyday of country blues to cutting electric sides in 1950s Chicago studios for the Chess subsidiary Checker. Minnie helped form the roots of electr...