Today's Strolling is a trilogy in memory of three of America's treasures

Ray Charles
Ronald Reagan
Marlon Brando.
Join me as we honor them all...

Many musicians possess elements of genius, but only one -- the great Ray Charles -- so completely embodies the term that it's been bestowed upon him as a nickname. Charles displayed his genius by combining elements of gospel and blues into a fervid, exuberant style that would come to be known as soul music.
While recording for Atlantic Records during the Fifties, the innovative singer, pianist and bandleader broke down the barriers between sacred and secular music. The gospel sound he'd heard growing up in the church found its way into the music he made as an adult. In his own words, he fostered "a crossover between gospel music and the rhythm patterns of the blues." But he didn't stop there: over the decades, elements of country & western and big-band jazz have infused his music as well. He is as complete and well-rounded a musical talent as this century has produced. ."
Born in Albany, Georgia, on September 23, 1930, Charles was raised in Greenville, Florida, where he made the acquaintance of a piano-playing neighbor. At age six, he contracted glaucoma, which eventually left him blind. Charles studied composition and mastered a variety of instruments, piano and saxophone principal among them, during nine years spent at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind. Thereafter, he played around Florida in a variety of bands and then headed for the West Coast, where he led a jazz-blues trio that performed in the polished style of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown. After cutting singles for labels such as Downbeat and Swingtime, Charles wound up on Atlantic Records in 1952. It turned out to be an ideal match between artist and label, as both were just beginning to find their feet. ."
Given artistic control at Atlantic after demonstrating his knack as an arranger with Guitar Slim's "Things That I Used to Do" -- the biggest R&B hit of 1954 -- Charles responded with a string of recordings in which he truly found his voice. This extended hit streak, which carried him through the end of the decade, included such unbridled R&B milestones as "I Got a Woman," "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Drown in My Own Tears" and the feverish call-and-response classic "What'd I Say." All were sung in Charles' gruff, soulful voice and accompanied by the percussive punctuations of his piano and a horn section. After his groundbreaking Atlantic years, Charles moved to ABC/Paramount, where he claimed the unlikeliest of genres as his own with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, an album that topped the Billboard chart for 14 weeks in 1962.
And just what is soul, according to Ray Charles? As he told Time magazine in 1968, "It's a force that can light a room. The force radiates from a sense of selfhood, a sense of knowing where you've been and what it means. Soul is a way of life -- but it's always the hard way."

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in 1911 in Tampico, Illinois, the second son of Jack and Nelle Reagan. He had a difficult childhood. His father was an itinerant shoe salesman and an alcoholic. In school, his undiagnosed nearsightedness held him back until a writing teacher named B. J. Frazier brought out the boy's native talent. "I was always called on to read [my papers]," Reagan remembered. "Maybe that's where the 'ham' began." Public speaking would become Reagan's passion, a practice he combined with his own brand of humor and optimism. The caption beneath his high school yearbook picture read, "Life is just one grand sweet song, so start the music."

In 1937, after an initial career as a radio sportscaster, Reagan took a screen test at Warner Bros.' Studio, which led to a seven-year contract. Hollywood cast him as the All-American boy, a role he played so many times that he became identified with it. Reagan eventually appeared in more than fifty feature films, and by 1941, Warner Bros. reported that only Errol Flynn received more fan mail.
During World War II, Reagan served in the army's motion picture unit, narrating training films. But his film career fizzled after the war, and he was increasingly relegated to the nightclub circuit, which he hated. When his wife, the actress Jane Wyman, divorced him in 1948, he entered the lowest period of his life. But Reagan was not Reagan unless he was upbeat. Four years later he married another actress, Nancy Davis, who became his greatest ally and friend. Then, "like the cavalry to the rescue," he said, came a new opportunity-he was offered the job as host of the weekly television program General Electric Theater. It climbed to be the number-one show in its time slot, making Reagan one of the most recognizable men in America. And when he became a part owner of the series, it also made him rich.
Reagan switched political parties in 1962 and began a rapid ascent in Republican party circles. His televised speech for Barry Goldwater two years later drew more contributions than any political speech in American history. It also established Ronald Reagan as a political force in his own right, with strong support in the business community in southern California. "When I was beset in 1965 by a group that insisted that I had to seek the governorship against the incumbent governor," he later said, "I fought like a tiger not to. Finally, I couldn't sleep nights, and Nancy and I said yes." Reagan served as governor of California for eight years, making his mark as an aggressive and popular conservative and slowly building a strong financial and political base from which to make his own run at higher office. During his quest for the presidency in 1980, Reagan cast himself as a revolutionary outsider-a crusader out to restore the American way of life.

The most famous proponent of Method acting and considered by many to be America's finest actor, Brando paved the way for a new style of acting in the 40s and 50s, first working on Broadway, where he created his first signature role as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. He made his screen debut in 1950's The Men, which was followed by his Oscar-nominated re-creation of Kowalski in Elia Kazan's film of A Streetcar Named Desire. Riding his sudden superstardom, roles in Viva Zapata, Julius Caesar, The Wild One and On the Waterfront followed, the latter of which won him his first Oscar. Once he became a true icon in the late 50s and 60s, he branched into directing (1961's One Eyed Jacks) and a troubled, bloated adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty, where his need for perfection (and infatuation with the south Pacific) put the movie over budget and over schedule.

That film marked the beginning of a string of failures in the 60s, and by the early 70s the actor's star seemed to have faded. However, it was a little gangster film in 1972 called The Godfather that catapulted Brando back into the spotlight, and his phenomenal turn as mob boss Vito Corleone earned him a second Oscar – which he notoriously refused, sending an actress dressed in Native American garb to the Academy Award ceremony to reject the award with a diatribe against the wrongs done to Native Americans by the U.S.
He courted even more controversy with Bernardo Bertolucci's X-rated Last Tango in Paris (though he grabbed another Oscar nomination), and appeared in both Hollywood projects (Superman, for which he received a record salary at the time) and award-winning films (appearing as Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola's troubled masterpiece Apocalypse Now) through the 70s. Sporadic film appearances marked the end of his career, including The Freshman, A Dry White Season and Don Juan De Marco.

Whatever your beliefs or politics, we say goodbye to these three men who each in their own way contributed in changing the face of America, be it through their music, their movies, or their role in our government....thank you to them all.

Until we stroll again, keep America in your prayers, a song in your heart, and the spirit of love in your life

Strolling Down Memory Lane Main Page
My Compliments to Candy on Trilogy