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Soul Singers Come to the Aid of Rosie Gaines with Benefit, Jan. 31

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Oakland soul singer Brenda Vaughn began planning a fundraiser benefit for her friend, singer and keyboardist Rosie Gaines, who has gone through periods of homelessness and was hospitalized for most of last year.

 

 

 

 

The benefit, “I Am My Sister’s Keeper,” is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 31, 8 p.m. at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, 410 14th Street in Oakland. It will feature a star-studded lineup of performers, including Lenny Williams, D’Wayne Wiggins of Tony Toni Tone, Wilton Rabb of Graham Central Station, Tuck and Patti, Tony Dwayne and Levi Seacer.

 

Brenda Vaughn

Brenda Vaughn

While in Singapore for an engagement at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Vaughn received reports from back home about the plight of her friend, each one more alarming than the last.

 

Gaines, who is best known for her duet with Prince on his 1993 hit “Diamonds and Pearls,” had spent much of her time in and out of the hospital after her legs had become swollen and seriously infected since she stopped taking her insulin.

 

Gaines, according to Vaughn, is now living in a homeless shelter in Richmond, where staff is making sure she takes her medication.

 

“I knew she was in trouble for over a year,” said Vaughn, while sitting in her office at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle in Oakland.

 

Gaines – from Pittsburg, CA – had been a popular attraction at such local venues as Earle’s Solano Club, Yoshi’s and the Great American Music Hall prior to joining Prince’s New Power Generation in 1989.

 

“I was thinking I’d send $300 or something to help out, but it just kept coming back to me. Once I found out she had nowhere to stay, I felt like I was supposed to do something bigger,” said Vaughn.

 

Vaughn began orchestrating the benefit in November while in Singapore and reached out to several Bay Area entertainers, asking them to part in the event. In December, at the end of her long-term contract with the hotel, Vaughn flew home to recruit more participants and put the final touches on the benefit.

 

Other performing vocalists include Vaughn, Tiffany Austin, Faye Carol, Melvin Carter, Darlene Coleman, La Toya Gaines, Nikita Germaine, Derick Hughes, Tara Kemp, Lady Bianca, Charlene Moore, Terrie Odabi, Otis Redding III and former En Vogue member Maxine Jones.

 

Vaughn said Gaines is expected to attend.

 

“Her legs have been getting better,” said La Toya, 37. “Since she has diabetes, it’s going to take a long time for them to heal. If she stops taking her medicine and her legs get re-infected, they’re going to end up having to amputate them. We’re trying to avoid that at all costs.”

 

Proceeds from the benefit will go towards housing where Gaines’ only child, La Toya, can help her 54-year-old mother get back on her feet, physically and mentally, and provide other living necessities.

 

Prince, according to a very reliable source, “is absolutely helping.”

 

Admission is $30. For tickets, visit www.geoffreysinnercircle.com.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

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O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.

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Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson. Wikipedia photo.
Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson. Wikipedia photo

By Post Staff

 Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.

Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.

At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.

Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).

He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”

The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.

It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.

He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.

He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.

Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.

Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.

In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.

When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.

Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.

“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.

“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”

“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.

“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”

Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.

He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.

Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 10 – 16, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 10 – 16, 2024

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