Lou Rawls, 70 or 72

Lou Rawls, the velvet-voiced singer who started as a church choir boy and went on to sell more than 40 million albums has died at age 72. He won three Grammy Awards in a career that spanned nearly five decades and a range of genres.

Rawls died early Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was hospitalized last month for treatment of lung and brain cancer, his publicist Paul Shefrin said. His wife Nina was at his bedside when he died, Shefrin said.

The family and Shefrin said Rawls was 72, although other records indicate he was 70.

Ironically, Rawls' annual telethon for the United Negro College Fund was scheduled for Saturday. Officials are saying the show will go on. Since 1979, Rawls' telethon has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the charity.
(Photo note: The photograph above is Rawls with Valley Glen Neighborhood Council member and Mayor Sam's Sister City reader, Dr. Charlotte Laws)