Norma Hunt, wife of the Kansas City Chiefs founder, dies at 85
Norma Hunt, the wife of the late Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt and the only woman who had attended every Super Bowl, has died, the team announced Sunday.
The team and the National Football League said she was 85. The cause of death was not given.
"Kind, generous and unfailingly positive, mom was one of a kind," the Hunt family said in a statement. "Her joy and zeal for life were infectious. She loved caring for others, and she always had an encouraging word. She was a loyal friend, the consummate hostess and she had a rare ability to make everyone she encountered feel valued and at ease."
"Mom was steadfastly devoted to her family and fiercely passionate about her family's sports teams," the statement added. "She was by our father Lamar's side every step of the way – from the merger of the AFL and the NFL to the formation of Major League Soccer, World Championship Tennis, the North American Soccer League, and their founding investment in the Chicago Bulls. She was the only person we knew who rivaled his love of sports. The two of them found such joy together, whether at home, or in stadium stands around the world."
Lamar Hunt died in 2006.
In February, Norma Hunt was able to attend her 57th Super Bowl and watch the Chiefs take home the victory for the third time in franchise history. In May, the team announced it will visit the White House Monday.
"Mrs. Norma was the best. Glad to be a part of this special organization she help build. She will be missed! Prayers to the entire Hunt family," Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said.
"The entire NFL family is deeply saddened by the passing of Norma Hunt, who was a significant presence in the NFL for the last seven decades," NFL Commissioner Roger Gooddell said.
"I was fortunate to know Norma for nearly 40 years and was always struck by her warmth and grace, her partnership with Lamar, and her pride in their family," he added. "Norma's sense of family extended to the Chiefs' organization which she greatly adored."
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/05/1180091024/norma-hunt-kansas-city-chiefs"Superstar" Billy Graham, wrestling Hall of Famer, dead at 79, WWE says
Pro wrestling legend "Superstar" Billy Graham has died, World Wrestling Entertainment says.
He was just short of his 80th birthday.
Graham, whose real name was Eldridge Wayne Coleman, was born on June 7, 1943 in Phoenix.
Graham's "flashy fashion style, over-the-top interviews and bodybuilder physique created the archetype for a generation of Superstars that followed in his footsteps," WWE says.
He was, according to WWE, "perhaps the single-most influential performer in WWE history whose interviews, fashion and physique inspired Hulk Hogan, Jesse 'The Body' Ventura and Scott Steiner."
It notes that his "greatest WWE achievement" was taking the WWE championship from fellow wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino in April 1977. He held onto the title for almost a year.
Graham was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.
He retired in 1987, at the age of 44, and became a manager and then a color commentator.
Graham's wife wrote early Monday, on his Facebook page that that he was on life support in a hospital and doctors wanted to take him off, but she refused.
"He's a fighter and his will is strong even if his body isn't," she wrote. "God is our hope."
Graham suffered from medical issues for months, according to a GoFundMe page. He'd lost 80 pounds as of April 26 and was enduring kidney, heart and lung problems.
The former wrestler has struggled with his health before. In his autobiography, Graham wrote about a history of drug abuse, which led to a liver transplant in 2002.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/superstar-billy-graham-wwe-hall-of-famer-dead-79/Isaac “Redd” Holt, Percussionist and Jazz Fusion Pioneer, Dies at 91The percussionist played on the Ramsey Lewis Trio’s Grammy-winning album The In Crowd
Isaac “Redd” Holt the jazz fusion pioneer and founding member of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, died Tuesday (May 23). The Grammy-winning percussionist, songwriter, educator, humanitarian, and entrepreneur recorded dozens of albums as a sideman and a bandleader, as well as with bassist Eldee Young. His music has been sampled more than 200 times by hip-hop artists such as De La Soul, Kendrick Lamar, and Pete Rock & CL Smooth. He was 91.
Born in Rosedale, Mississippi, on May 16, 1932, Holt scored his first gigs with Lester Young in the 1950s while still attending high school at Chicago’s American Conservatory of Music. He served a stint in the U.S. Army before joining Ramsey Lewis’ original trio alongside bassist Eldee Young.
The Ramsey Lewis Trio’s high-water mark was their second LP, The In Crowd, which hit No. 2 on the Billboard albums chart in 1965. The title track also cracked the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and reached No. 2 on the R&B chart. The album won a Grammy Award in 1966 for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, and the single would be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009. Dizzy Gillespie would later credit the trio—which melded bebop with soul, R&B, rock, and opera—as a forerunner to jazz fusion.
Following the album’s resounding success, Holt and Young left to form the Young-Holt Trio, which eventually became the Young-Holt Unlimited. The group featured an expansive rotating cast of musicians, many of whom signed to the publishing company the two founded together. The pair disbanded in 1974.
Holt spent much of the 1980s releasing various collaborations and projects. He would also return to school, attending Kennedy-King College to study radio and television. He endorsed Ludwig drums, and the company’s founder, Bill Ludwig, designed a custom drum rack to hold Holt’s congas—an innovation that would become the standard in drum shops around the world.
The final album of Holt’s lifetime is It's a Take.
https://pitchfork.com/news/isaac-redd-holt-percussionist-and-jazz-fusion-pioneer-dies-at-91/Soulful Strut · The Young-Holt UnlimitedListen:
