Fats Domino Missing in New Orleans

[MonaMe577]

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=200427

FATS DOMINO MISSING IN NEW ORLEANS

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Fats Domino was missing Thursday, days after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, said his longtime agent, Al Embry.

Embry told The Associated Press that he hadn't been able to contact Domino since talking to him Sunday evening by phone.

The 77-year-old R&B legend, whose real name is Antoine Domino, told Embry that he planned to stay at his New Orleans house with his wife, Rosemary, and their daughter.

"I hope somebody turns him up, but as of right now, we haven't got anybody that knows where he's at," said Embry, who has worked with Domino for 28 years. "I would think he might be safe because somebody said he was on top of the balcony."

Checquoline Davis, Domino's niece, posted a message on Craigslist.com Thursday pleading for information. Davis wrote that Domino, his wife, their children and grandchildren "didn't get out" of the second floor.

Domino, who has rarely appeared in public in recent years, has a home in the 9th ward, a low-lying area of the flooded city.

Getting information on possible missing persons has been nearly impossible as phone lines for hospitals and police haven't been working.

Domino has sold more than 110 million records in his long career, including the legendary singles "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain't That a Shame."

His 1950 recording of "The Fat Man" is sometimes called the first real rock 'n' roll record. He was among the first honorees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[HMVNipper]

I saw this earlier. My prayers are with Fats, as well as the rest of the people in New Orleans and all over the Gulf Coast.

[SF4-EVER]

He's been found! I'm glad there's at least some good news coming out of all this.

Link to story. (http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/01/katrina.fats.domino/index.html)

Fats Domino found OK in New Orleans

Thursday, September 1, 2005; Posted: 8:51 p.m. EDT (00:51 GMT)


Rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino was among the thousands of New Orleans residents plucked from rising floodwaters, his daughter said Thursday.

Karen Domino White, who lives in New Jersey, identified her father in a picture taken Monday night by a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer.

The photograph shows Domino -- the singer behind the 1950s hits "Ain't That a Shame" and "Blueberry Hill" -- being helped off a boat near his home in the city's Lower 9th Ward.

His whereabouts since the rescue were not immediately known. Nor was there any information about his wife, Rosemary, friends said.

The neighborhood was heavily flooded when a levee failed as Katrina slammed into southeastern Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Thousands are feared dead in the storm, Louisiana's governor and the mayor of New Orleans have said, though no official tally has been compiled.

White said she last heard from her father August 23, four days before the storm hit, and was unable to contact him Sunday.

"I didn't have any information. I was just praying," she said.

Writer Charles Amann said he last spoke to Domino on Sunday, and the singer refused to join the evacuation that was then under way.

"He said to me, in that wonderful Southern accent of his, that no, he was staying on -- that he had gone through the last one and he could go through this one," said Amann, who is working on a book on the early days of the "American Bandstand" television program.

Many of those evacuated from the Lower 9th Ward were taken to the Louisiana Superdome and are being transferred to the Astrodome sports stadium in Houston, Texas.

Alan Warner, an EMI Music executive, also saw the photograph of Domino's rescue. But he said he did not know where the 77-year-old singer, born Antoine Domino, was taken afterward.

"But the fact that he actually was rescued is just so gratifying," Warner said.

[Beatle_4]

This was covered in the "Here, There, And Everywhere Thread" under "Katrina" Thread on page 2.

Just thought I'd mention it to all interested parties.

[Zimmerman The Gnome]

Aren't there other famous musicians who live in New Orleans?

[Hari's Chick]

Fantastic! He was in my thoughts all day yesterday... love him, so thank God he's okay.