Keep Lou Rawls in your thoughts and/or prayers

[Gentle Giant]

Just came upon this sad news.


During a marriage annulment hearing in Arizona on Dec. 15, Lou Rawls's manager and estranged wife Nina told the court that her husband has been battling lung cancer for a year, and brain cancer since May. "By his doctor's admission, he is not expected to live much more," she said. But Rawls, currently being treated for cancer at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, told an Arizona newspaper not to count him out too quickly. "There's been many people who have been diagnosed with this kind of thing, and they're still jumpin' and pumpin'," the 70-year-old entertainer said. He added that he had smoked regularly as a young man but quit 35 years ago.

[RainyDay]

I was listening to Xmas music this weekend and Lou Rawls is on one of the R&B complilations. He has such a warm, rich voice. My cousin met him in Las Vegas when they were both with friends and she said he was very gracious to her and her friends. I hope he is not suffering.

[Monte Smith]

He does the best version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" ever recorded.

Hope he has himself a merry little Christmas in health and good cheer.

[hornplayer]

not good news... prayers going out....

[Gary Delligatti]

DAM! From the CNN news site:

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Grammy-winning singer Lou Rawls has been diagnosed with cancer and was being treated at a Los Angeles hospital, his spokesman said on Friday.

"He was diagnosed with cancer a while back and he's undergone various treatments," Paul Shefrin said, adding that the illness became public in an Arizona court where the 70-year-old crooner was seeking an annulment of his marriage.

Shefrin declined to provide further details or confirm a report in the Arizona Republic that Rawls was diagnosed with lung cancer a year ago.

"Don't count me out, brother," Rawls told the paper from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "There's been many people who have been diagnosed with this kind of thing and they're still jumpin' and pumpin'."

Rawls said in the interview that he had smoked regularly as a young man but quit 35 years ago.

Rawls was born in Chicago, grew up performing in the church choir and got his start in show business as a Gospel singer before turning to R&B, soul and pop. He has won three Grammy awards and sold more than 40 million albums

[Ron Thorne]

Sad news, indeed.

I was fortunate enough to hear him in a little jazz club (The Mermaid) on 4th avenue in Anchorage before he "made it". His voice and style are unmistakably his own.

All the best to Lou Rawls. Here's hoping you're still jumpin' and pumpin' for many years to come.