Ray Charles, the 73 year old Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues died  Thursday, June 10, at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends, said his spokesman Jerry Digney.

Ray Charles Robinson was born Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Ga. His father, Bailey Robinson, was a mechanic and a handyman, and his mother, Aretha, stacked boards in a sawmill. His family moved to Gainesville, Fla., when Ray was just a baby.

"Talk about poor," Ray once said. "We were on the bottom of the ladder."

When Ray was about five, he witnessed his brother drown in the tub his mother used to do laundry in. His family struggled through poverty at the height of the Depression, Ray lost his sight two years later. Glaucoma is mentioned as the cause, though Ray said nothing was ever diagnosed. He said his mother never allowed him to wallow in pity.

"When the doctors told her that I was gradually losing my sight, and that I wasn't going to get any better, she started helping me deal with it by showing me how to get around, how to find things," Ray says in his autobiography. "That made it a little bit easier to deal with."

A true talent, Ray began dabbling in music at the age of 3, encouraged by a cafe owner who played the piano. Ray's knowledge was basic, which prepared him for music classes when he was sent away, heartbroken, to the state-supported St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind.

"Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory," Ray said. "I can sit at my desk and write a whole arrangement in my head and never touch the piano. .. There's no reason for it to come out any different than the way it sounds in my ZZZhead."

Ray had many musical early influences: Chopin and Sibelius, Country and Western stars he heard on the Grand Ole Opry, the powerhouse Big Bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Jazz greats Art Tatum and Artie Shaw... He learned to read and write music in Braille, to score for big bands, and play instruments - lots of them, including trumpet, clarinet, organ, alto sax, and the piano.

By the time Ray was 15, his parents had passed and he had graduated from St. Augustine. Ray wound up playing gigs in black dance halls - the so-called "chitlin' circuit", and exposed himself to the variety of music he loved, including Hillbilly, (he learned to yodel), before moving to Seattle.

Ray dropped his last name in deference to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, styled himself for a time after Nat "King" Cole, and formed a group that backed rhythm 'n' blues singer Ruth Brown. It was in Seattle's red light district that Ray met a young Quincy Jones, showing the future producer and composer how to write music. It was the beginning of a lifelong beautiful friendship.

Ray developed quickly in those early days. Atlantic Records purchased his contract from Swingtime Records in 1952, and two years later Ray recorded "I Got a Woman," a raw mix of Gospel and Rhythm 'n' Blues, inventing what was to become labeled Soul. Soon he was being called "The Genius" and Ray played Carnegie Hall, and the Newport Jazz Festival.

Ray's first big hit was 1959's "What'd I Say," built from a simple piano riff, with background moaning from the Raeletts. Some U.S. radio stations banned the song because of that suggestive moaning, but Ray was on his path to stardom.

Between 1960 and 1966, Ray won nine of his twelve Grammy Awards, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Busted"). 

Ray loved the ladies, and his womanizing was legendary. He also struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting cold turkey in 1965, after he was arrested at the Boston Airport. Yet with a defiant spirit and a grin, Ray released both "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Let's Go Get Stoned" in 1966. Ray later became reluctant to talk about his past drug use, fearing it could taint how people thought of his music.

"I've known times where I've felt terrible, but once I get to the stage and the band starts with the music, I don't know why but it's like you have pain and take an aspirin, and you don't feel it no more," he once said."I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of," says Ray in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother Ray." "Music was one of my parts ... Like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water."

His versions of well known songs include "Makin' Whoopee" and a stirring "America the Beautiful." Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote "Georgia on My Mind" in 1931, but it didn't become Georgia's official state song until 1979, long after Charles had turned it into an American hit.

Veteran producer Jerry Wexler, who recorded "What'd I Say," says he has worked with only three geniuses in the music business: Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles.

"In each case they brought something new to the table," Wexler told the San Jose Mercury News in 1994. Ray "had this blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the Devil's words to them. ... He can take a gem from Tin Pan Alley or cut to the country, but he brings the same root to it, which is Black American music."

Ray released "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Volumes 1 and 2" in the early '60s, a big switch from his gospel work. It included some of the biggest hits of his career- "Born to Lose," "Take These Chains From My Heart (And Set Me Free)," and "I Can't Stop Loving You."

Ray and Martin Luther King Jr. were friends, and he once refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa, but politics really wasn't his thing.

Ray made it a point to explore each medium he took on. Country sides were somewhat Pop-oriented, while fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and steel guitar were added to "Wish You Were Here Tonight," in the '80s. Quincy Jones wrote a special choral and orchestral work for Ray to perform with the Roanoke, Va., symphony.

Ray's last Grammy came in 1993 for "A Song for You." He continued to tour, and treasured time to play chess. He was happiest playing music, smiling, and swaying behind the piano, creating music for every moment of our lives. His appeal spanned generations as he teamed with Willie Nelson, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton, to name a few. Ray also appeared in several films, including "The Blues Brothers." And remember those wonderful Pepsi "Uh- huh" themed commercials?

"The way I see it, we're actors, but musical ones," Ray told The Associated Press. "We're doing it with notes, and lyrics with notes, telling a story. I can take an audience and get 'em into a frenzy so they'll almost riot, and yet I can sit there so you can almost hear a pin drop."

"His sound was stunning - it was the Blues, it was R&B, it was Gospel, it was Swing - it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing," singer Van Morrison was quoted in Rolling Stone magazine in April.

"Music's been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead," Ray told the Washington Post in 1983. "I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal."

On another sad note:

He was Punk Rock before punk was punk rock,

guitarist Robert Quine died Saturday, June 5th, from a heroin o.d. He was 61 years old, but you're probably wondering who he was...

Robert Quine (left) on the cover of his 1984 album "Basic," with Fred Maher.

Robert was a renowned guitarist who played with Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Marianne Faithfull, Mathew Sweet, and Lloyd Cole. In 2001, Universal released Quine's 1969 recording of The Velvet Underground - The Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes -

Robert was despondent over the recent passing of his wife, he perished in NYC.

"Robert was an original and innovative tyro of the vintage beast." remembers Lou Reed.

Also Remembering:

Lu Leonard  1927 - 2004

You might remember actress Lu Leonard in Cagney & Lacey, Who's the Boss, The Facts Of Life, Lavern & Shirley, and Married With Children, to name a few. She was also the hit if the theatre production Women Behind Bars, which played the Roxy in 1983, stealing the show as the notorious Matron. Leonard came from a Vaudeville family and grew up on tour. She appeared on Broadway five times and loved doing the touring musical circuit. "She was always too smart for the room," said her best friend Joe Ross. Lu retired at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, where she wondered what she was doing with all those older people! Above all, Lu had talent, personality, and a love of entertaining us all. A memorial service will be announced this summer.

And a special mention to BooBoo Lupe, the Cat. 

Although BooBoo was a cat, she had many human friends. She would lounge around the patio area, or your front door, and would talk to you when she saw you. She was an orange and white long hair, with an adventurous spirit. But she would always come when you called her. I sat for her once, and she took full advantage of 'Aunt Kiki', staying out until 10:00pm every night! One night I came home to find her sneaking down the stairs to the carport; "BooBoo, what are you doing, you know your not supposed to be down here, you march right back up those stairs right now," I said to her. Busted-and she knew it! She listened at me, then dashed up the stairs! BooBoo was around 17 years old, and lived a full and happy life. She leaves behind her human mom Sylvia, and ChiChi, her sister. Miss BooBoo was loved by many, and will be missed by all who knew her. XO to you BooBoo, the talking Cat with many human friends.