Don Cornelius, Creator of Soul Train, Dies of Self-Inflicted Gunshot
Don Cornelius, the producer and television host who created the television dance show “Soul Train,” was found shot dead in his Los Angeles home on Wednesday morning, and detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department were looking trying to determine if his death was a suicide.
A person at the producer’s house on Mulholland Drive in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood called the police and reported shots had been fired just before 4 a.m., a police spokesman, Chris No, said. When officers arrived, they were let into the house and found Mr. Cornelius lying lifeless on the floor. He was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was 75 years old.
“We don’t know if he committed suicide,” Mr. No said. “It’s still under investigation.”
“Soul Train” was one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history and played a critical role in spreading the music of black America to the world, offering wide exposure to musicians such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson in the 1970s and 1980s.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/arts/music/don-cornelius-soul-train-creator-is-dead-at-75.html?_r=1&hp
= new reply since forum marked as read
what a sad start to Black History Month
