{"id":197,"date":"2006-10-17T22:30:58","date_gmt":"2006-10-18T05:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/?p=197"},"modified":"2006-10-18T02:39:47","modified_gmt":"2006-10-18T09:39:47","slug":"rip-jennell-hawkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/?p=197","title":{"rendered":"RIP: Jennell Hawkins, singer with Richard Berry + Freddie Willis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s some sad news:<\/p>\n

\"Jennell<\/p>\n

Singer-pianist Jennell Hawkins<\/strong> died in Los Angeles on Friday, October 13, after a long illness following a stroke last year. She was the lead singer on the Dreamers<\/strong>‘ well-regarded “Since You’ve Been Gone”\/”Do Not Forget” (Flip Records, 1957), and also dueted with Richard Berry<\/strong> (as Ricky & Jennell<\/strong>) on a single for Flair Records, but she’s best known for “Moments to Remember,” a small, Richard Berry-written pop hit (#50) in late 1961.<\/p>\n

Ironically, on October 13, the day of her death, she was being honored at a\u201cLegends of Central Avenue\u201d celebration in Los Angeles. According to LA Weekly<\/a>, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa<\/strong> was scheduled to present certificates of recognition to Ms. Hawkins along with other past and present female jazz singers, including Etta James<\/strong>, Melba Liston<\/strong>, Esther Phillips<\/strong>, among others at a special ceremony at Los Angeles City Hall. <\/p>\n

At the Southern California DooWop Society<\/strong> webpages<\/a>, which is where I borrowed this photo of Jennell, there’s a nice little write-up about a show she did in 2002, joining her old bandmates, The Dreamers<\/strong> for what sounded like an awesome performance.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong>– Jim Dawson<\/strong> adds:<\/p>\n

Jennell actually had two small R&B hits, “Moments” (#16) and “Money (That’s What I Want)” (#17), both on Amazon. “Moments” was retitled “Moments to Remember” on her two albums; she redid the song in a jazzier style for her first LP, The Many Moods of Jenny, in 1961, and the single version appeared on her Moments to Remember LP a year later. Jennell was also a member of the Combo-Nettes<\/strong> on Combo, best known for “Hi Diddle Diddle” with Jake Porter<\/strong>‘s band.<\/p>\n

Another one gone is Freddie Willis<\/strong> of the Calvanes,<\/strong> who died Monday of cancer. He joined the group in 1958 and recorded on their Deck singles. He was a member of the group during the last 16 years or so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OUCH! On the previously mentioned Southern California DooWop Society<\/strong> webpage about a show with Jennell Hawkins<\/a>, it notes that Freddie sang Richard Berry<\/strong>‘s part with the Dreamers<\/strong> that night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s some sad news: Singer-pianist Jennell Hawkins died in Los Angeles on Friday, October 13, after a long illness following a stroke last year. She was the lead singer on the Dreamers‘…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,30,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-los-angeles-music","category-obituaries","category-richard-berry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.louielouie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}