LEAGUE CITY, Texas (AP) -- Katie Webster, the blues singer known as ``The Swamp Boogie Queen'' for her frenetic, two-fisted piano style, died Sunday of a heart attack. She was 63.
Born Kathryn Jewel Thorne, Ms. Webster first learned to play gospel and classical music.
Her parents, wary of secular influences, kept the piano locked up so she couldn't play unsupervised.
As a teen, she moved in with more agreeable relatives in south Louisiana and by age 15 became one of the most requested studio musicians in the region. Her music appears on more than 500 singles cut in the 1950s and 1960s.
A young Otis Redding discovered her in 1964. She toured with him until his death in a 1967 plane crash that might have killed her. She couldn't fly because she was pregnant.
Devastated, Ms. Webster essentially stopped performing until the early 1980s, when she took Europe by storm. She became a favorite in the U.S. blues festival circuit and recorded on the Chicago-based Alligator Records label with the likes of Robert Cray and Bonnie Raitt.
A 1993 stroke severely damaged her eyesight and use of her left hand, but she continued to appear at select festivals.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Lenon Hoyte, an art teacher who shared her dream of a doll museum with Harlem children and collectors from around the world, died Aug. 1. She was 94.
Better known as Aunt Len, Ms. Hoyte officially opened her collection of dolls in 1974. Housed in a three-story brownstone she bought with her husband in 1938, the collection of Aunt Len's Doll and Toy Museum once numbered 6,000 dolls.
Among them were a dozen versions of Shirley Temple, Barbie, Betsy Wetsy, presidents and their wives and black dolls, which are now highly sought by collectors because so few were made before the 20th century.
After paying a modest entrance fee that never exceeded $2, visitors would encounter mannequins ranging from thumb-size to two or three feet tall. The museum remained open until the early 1990s when Ms. Hoyte was no longer able to care for it.
In 1994, 700 of the finest antique dolls were auctioned at Sotheby's. Thousands more had been sold previously to dealers around the world.
Ms. Hoyte taught art at a Bronx public high school for 41 years.
# Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list?
# Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com.
# To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 09:47:55 EDT
From: Thinkmatic@aol.com
Subject: (exotica) Puttin' it out there
To all you Keepers Of The Sacred Music:
I just thought I'd toss it out there again. Anyone interested in trading,
listening to, or sharing some Exotica/Now/Soundtrack music in (high quality)
mp3, home cooked CDs, whatever, drop me a line. I just started digitizing
vinyl, so I've added some Command albums, some A&M and other stuff to the
ever growing list. If you have any questions, then question me.
Always grateful,
- -Roy G. Biv
# Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list?
# Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com.
# To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender.
