Edward Lamonte Franklin (January 16, 1928 – July 31, 1975), better known as Guitar Pete Franklin, was an American blues singer, musician and songwriter. His best known track was "Guitar Pete's Blues".Franklin variously worked with a number of fellow blues musicians including St. Louis Jimmy Oden, Jazz Gillum, John Brim, Sunnyland Slim, and Tampa Red.
Gary Wayne Schelton (May 14, 1939 – January 7, 2016), better known as Troy Shondell, was an American singer, who achieved fame in the early 1960s. He became a transatlantic one-hit wonder, by releasing a single that made the record charts in both the US and the UK. The song, "This Time" (or sometimes billed as "This Time (We're Really Breaking Up)" ) sold over one million records, earning gold disc status. In a single year, sales were over three million copies.
William James Gaither (born March 28, 1936) is an American singer and songwriter of Southern gospel and contemporary Christian music. He has written numerous popular Christian songs with his wife Gloria; he is also known for performing as part of the Bill Gaither Trio and the Gaither Vocal Band. In the 1990s, his career gained a resurgence (as well as the careers of other southern gospel artists), as popularity grew for the Gaither Homecoming series. In 2023 he released a secular music album with the Gaither Vocal Band entitled “Love Songs”.
William Henderson (August 9, 1939 – February 2, 2007) was an American singer, best known for being an original member and founder of The Spinners, a soul vocal group.
Thomas Morgan Woodward (September 16, 1925 – February 22, 2019) was an American actor who is best known for his recurring role as Marvin "Punk" Anderson on the television soap opera Dallas and for his portrayal of Boss Godfrey, the sunglasses-wearing "man with no eyes", in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke. On TV, he was a familiar guest star on cowboy shows. On the long-running Western Gunsmoke, he played 16 different characters in 19 episodes (including a pair of two-part stories), the most such appearances of any actor on the show. He also had a recurring role on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
John Paul Larkin (March 13, 1942 – December 3, 1999), known professionally as Scatman John, was an American musician. A prolific jazz pianist and vocalist for several decades, he rose to prominence during the 1990s through his fusion of scat singing and dance music. He recorded five albums, which were released between 1986 and 2001.
In the United States and Europe, Larkin is recognized for his 1995 singles "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" and "Scatman's World". He achieved his greatest success in Japan, where his album Scatman's World (1995) sold over a million copies. Outside of his musical activities, he had deepened exchanges with stuttering organizations and established the Scatland Foundation in 1996 with the purpose of furthering research of and educating the public on stuttering. Larkin was a recipient of the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association's Annie Glenn Award for outstanding service to the stuttering community and a posthumous inductee to the National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame.
Robert Daniel Ealey (December 6, 1925 – March 8, 2001) was an American electric blues singer, who performed Texas blues. Among other releases, he recorded a couple of albums for Black Top Records in the 1990s, having earlier formed a duo with U.P. Wilson. Ealey also worked with Tone Sommer, Mike Buck, and Mike Morgan.Ealey's best-known work includes "One Love One Kiss" and "Turn Out the Lights". He variously worked with the Boogie Chillun Boys, the Juke Jumpers and the Five Careless Lovers.
Arthur Lund (April 1, 1915 – May 31, 1990) was an American baritone singer, initially with bandleaders Benny Goodman and Harry James, and was also a television and stage actor.
Arthur Leo "Doodle" Owens (November 28, 1930 – October 4, 1999) was an American country music songwriter and singer. He had a long songwriting partnership with Dallas Frazier, with whom he wrote "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)" (1969), "(I'm So) Afraid of Losing You Again" (1969), "I Can't Believe That You've Stopped Loving Me" (1970) and "Then Who Am I" (1974), all number-one country hits for Charley Pride. In the 1980s, Owens wrote many songs with fellow songwriter Dennis Knutson for George Jones and other artists.
Owens was born is Waco, Texas. As a singer, his only charting hit was "Honky Tonk Toys", written by Owens with Gene Vowell, which made it to number 78 on the country charts in 1978.
Charley Pride's version of "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1970. Owens was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999.Owens died in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 68.
Charlie Applewhite (November 25, 1932 – April 27, 2001) was an American singer and radio host. The height of his fame came as a regular on the Milton Berle show in the mid 1950s, and he became a highly-paid entertainer, performing on records, radio, and television. The advent of the Rock era and a plane crash that left him severely injured curtailed his career.