This article was originally published in The Press Enterprise on A1 on Jan. 21, 2012.
BY VANESSA FRANKO
STAFF WRITER
Etta James, the internationally renowned singer whose recording of “At Last” is among the most beloved rhythm & blues standards, has died at age 73 after more than a year of battling leukemia and other ailments. She was a longtime resident of the Riverside-area community of Woodcrest.
She died from complications of leukemia and was with her sons Donto and Sametto, and husband, Artis Mills, in a Riverside hospital, her longtime manager Lupe DeLeon said.
While Mrs. James was an icon in the music world, highly regarded among peers and a member of the rock ‘n’ roll, blues, rockabilly and Grammy halls of fame, she was also a beloved and admired member of the Riverside community.
Many local residents recall fondly James’ lively performance in front of the Riverside County Courthouse in July 2001. The free show was part of the since-discontinued Concerts at the Courthouse series.
Helios J. Hernandez III, a Riverside lawyer and musician, watched the show from a landing at the former district attorney’s offices.
“She had a lot of attitude and spark about her,” he said.
Musicians from all over Riverside came to the show to pay their respects to “one of the most important contributors to music from this area,” Hernandez said.
“She was very much a source of pride,” said Ralph Torres, a Riverside native and local musician.
CELEBRITY, CITIZEN
Despite her celebrity, Mrs. James visited the same grocery stores and retail shops as other citizens before her health started to fail in recent years.
For years, Mrs. James and her family lived in south Los Angeles, but she moved to Inland Southern California to escape street violence.
“I was tired of having no place to park my cars,” she told The Press-Enterprise in 1993. “Having burglar alarms going off all night long, my husband running outside with a gun.
“My grandmother had a house in Lake Elsinore and in San Bernardino that we used to go to,” said James. “And I would come and spend the summer in one of those houses. Lake Elsinore had the magic Indian mud, and the old people with aches and pains would put the mud on them. Well, my grandmother would always say, ‘I would sure love to live in Riverside.’ And that stuck in my mind. I remember coming down here on a Sunday and looking at the palm trees. And I said to myself, ‘This is a pretty place.’ And it’s still a lot like that. It’s got a country atmosphere, and you know everyone at the local stores.”
Born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles in 1938, Mrs. James was raised in San Francisco.
“I was a street kid, living in rooming houses,” she said in 1993. “My mother was just 14 years older than me and she had a hard life, too. I was always running away from home, getting in trouble. What motivated me was fear and hard knocks.”
Mrs. James began singing in nightspots as a teenager alone and with her doo-wop group called The Peaches.
BANDLEADER TOOK NOTICE
She was discovered by bandleader Johnny Otis, who died Thursday. James charted her first hit at age 17 with the suggestive song “The Wallflower” – also known as “Roll With Me Henry” – a response to Hank Ballard’s “Work With Me Annie.” The song reached No. 2 on the R&B charts and earned her a spot on a national tour by Little Richard.
Mrs. James earned a string of hits in the 1960s, including “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “I’d Rather Go Blind” and “Tell Mama.”
Her most famous hit from the 1960s, “At Last,” has become part of the soundtrack to American culture, often played at weddings. A version performed at President Barack Obama’s inaugural ball by Beyonce caused a flap when Mrs. James spoke about it onstage at one of her shows, disparaging the pop star and the president, but Mrs. James later said it was a joke.
“I’m a comedian besides a singer,” Mrs. James told The Press-Enterprise in 2009, shortly after the incident. “I wasn’t doing it to be hateful.”
Mrs. James’ music has been frequently featured in commercials, motion pictures and television shows from “Back to the Future” to “The Simpsons.”
In the 1970s, Mrs. James had trouble fitting her music into popular categories. “They never knew where to place my records, where to put the platter down,” Mrs. James told The Press-Enterprise. “Twenty years ago, I was considered rhythm and blues. Thirty five years ago, I was considered rock ‘n’ roll. (Atlantic producer) Jerry Wexler said my problem was that ‘I was neither fish nor fowl.’ I always basically felt I was rock ‘n’ roll. But my music had blues and gospel and soul in it because they all came from the same root.”
ADDICTION ISSUES
Her stormy life, in which she battled substance abuse, multiple health problems and bouts of extreme obesity, was the subject of her 2003 autobiography “Rage to Survive.”
Her life comprised much of the plot of the film “Cadillac Records,” her role played by contemporary pop icon Beyonce. The film was based on the real-life record label Chess Records, and its founder, Leonard Chess, for which Mrs. James recorded some of her most popular hits.
“I’m no Suzy Cream Cheese,” Mrs. James told The Press-Enterprise in 2008. “I’m a bad girl.”
After kicking her heroin addiction, which started in the mid-1960s, Mrs. James continued to record but bounced from one record label to another. She signed with Windham Hill label in 1994 and her album “Mystery Lady,” which featured the songs of Billie Holiday, received a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance.
Positioning herself as a jazz diva, she became a favorite at jazz festivals, including regular appearances at LA’s Playboy Jazz Festival.
Continuing to defy definition, she even recorded a country album, “Love’s Been Rough on Me,” in 1997. “The blues and country are first cousins,” she said at the time.
“She is one of the real national treasures,” guitarist Joe Walsh told The Press-Enterprise in October. He recorded an album with Mrs. James 20 years ago.
The singer’s health started to fail in early 2010 after a urinary tract infection led to sepsis. In the year after, she was diagnosed with dementia, leukemia and organic brain syndrome, according to court documents from a 2011 case in which Mills, her husband, sought control of her assets.
She is survived by Mills and sons Donto James, who was also a drummer in her band, and Sametto James.
Mrs. James would have celebrated her 74th birthday Wednesday.