LaVern Baker--Jim Dandy, Saved, 1988 TV with Interview

Here is my celebratory performance from LaVern Baker at the 40th anniversary celebrations of Atlantic Records. AS Phil Collins says in his intro speech, Atlantic showed that it was OK for white kids to listen to black music. They promoted many African American artists and brought them to wider audiences. LaVern was an iconic 50's RnB and pre Rock and Roll singer who was admired by the likes of Elvis and so on. After a divorce she volunteered to go to Vietnam to entertain US troops fighting in that war. While on this tour she caught pneumonia and was sent to a US naval base at Subic Bay in the Phillipines to recover. When she was ready to depart the people on the base asked her to stay as resident singer and entertainments manager. She accepted and only left 22 years later when the base was closed down. Unfortunately she was a diabetes sufferer and had both legs amputated in 1995 due to this. Medical expenses had used up all her money and she could not afford prosthetics. However a family business in Boston offered to make them pro bono. She was all rearing to go back out there and perform without the wheelchair but sadly had a fatal cardiac arrest in 1998. She was buried in an unmarked grave. In 2011 some fans got money together remember her with a tombstone and dignity.