Carl Edward Gardner (April 29, 1928 – June 12, 2011) was an American singer, best known as the foremost member and founder of The Coasters. Known for the 1958 song "Yakety Yak", which spent a week as number one on the Hot 100 pop list, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Carolyn L. Cannon-Alfred (born August 16, 1934 – August 29, 1987) was an American pharmacologist who established a medical clinic in South-central Los Angeles. She was an assistant professor of pharmacology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a senior pharmacologist at Riker Laboratories. Cannon-Alfred co-authored the Medical Handbook for the Layman in 1971.
Harry Cummings McPherson Jr. (August 22, 1929 – February 16, 2012) served as counsel and special counsel to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969 and was Johnson's chief speechwriter from 1966 to 1969. McPherson's A Political Education, 1972, is a classic insider's view of Washington and an essential source for Johnson's presidency. A prominent Washington lawyer and lobbyist since 1969, McPherson was awarded American Lawyer magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He died February 16, 2012, in Bethesda, Maryland.
Jerry Bridges (December 4, 1929 – March 6, 2016) was an evangelical Christian author, speaker and staff member of The Navigators, a Christian organization. Born in Tyler, Texas, United States, he was the author of more than a large number of books, including The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold more than one million copies. His devotional Holiness Day by Day garnered the 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award for the inspiration and gift category, and The Discipline of Grace received a similar award in 1995 for the Christian living category.Bridges earned his undergraduate degree in engineering at the University of Oklahoma, before serving as an officer in the United States Navy during the Korean War. He joined Christian discipleship organization The Navigators in 1955, where he served as administrative assistant to the Europe Director, office manager for the headquarters office, Secretary-Treasurer of the organization, and as Vice President for Corporate Affairs before moving to a staff development position with the Collegiate Mission.At the time of his death, he was a widower, and had married Jane Mallot a year after his first wife's death. Bridges died on March 6, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the age of 86.
Gerald Busby (born December 16, 1935) is an American composer.
Busby was born in Tyler, Texas. He studied piano as a child, playing with the Houston Symphony when he was fifteen. He attended Yale where he studied music in college, but once graduated, began working as a traveling salesman. At age 40 he had an "epiphany" and began to compose, a direction which surprised him.In 1977, with the assistance of Virgil Thomson, he moved to the Hotel Chelsea in New York City where he has written most of his work. Living at the Hotel Chelsea brought him into contact with numerous cultural figures. One of them was dancer Rudolf Nureyev and his then-partner Wallace Potts. Potts gave Paul Taylor a recording by Busby's music, which led to Busby writing the score for Taylor's dance Runes. Regarding his scores for Paul Taylor's dance "Runes" and Robert Altman's film 3 Women, Busby said "Those two pieces are acknowledged as masterpieces, so that I know they’ll last beyond me,” Mr. Busby said. “Not because what I did was a masterpiece, but I was part of it."In 1985 Busby was diagnosed with HIV as was his partner Samuel Byers. Byers died on December 14, 1993; the couple had been together for 18 years. "Sam’s death was just unbearable...He lost his mind and withered away. I was there the whole time with him and taking care of him, so I just went nuts." After a bout of depression and drug addiction, he became sober and began composing again. In 2007, his monthly income amounted to $658 from Social Security, $78 in disability payments, and $156 in food stamps. Income from his music was undependable; in a good month he could get $1000, or nothing. The New York Times ran him as one of their "most neediest cases." Through the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Busby was able to receive $754.96 for digitizing recordings originally made on perishable cassette tape.Despite being HIV positive, he claims that his immune system has regenerated, something he attributes to his daily practice of reiki. He continues to live at the Hotel Chelsea.
JB Floyd (né James Robert Floyd; born June 2, 1929) is an American concert pianist (jazz, classical, experimental, avant-garde, and the like), composer, and music pedagogue at the collegiate level. Before retiring in 2013, Floyd spent 64 years as a music educator in higher education, including as chairman of keyboard performance at Northern Illinois University from 1962 to 1981 and chairman of keyboard performance at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music from 1982 to 2013. Floyd is a Yamaha Artist.