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My Guy star Mary Wells succombs to cancer By ROBERT JABION Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Mary Wells, who tried to sell Motown Records a song she had written and wound up a singing star with Top 10 hits that included the bouncy "My Guy," has died of cancer at 49. Wells, who underwent surgery for cancer of the larynx in 1990, died at a hospital on Sunday. Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen and other stars had helped pay her med ical bills because she had no health insurance. From 1961 to 1964, Wells hit the Top 10 on the pop charts with "The One Who Really Loves You," "You Beat Me to the Punch," "Two Lovers" and her sig nature song, "My Guy," all written or co-written by fellow Motown star Smokey Robinson. "I don't think there's any audi ence with an age of 30 through 50 that doesn't know the words to 'My Guy,'" said Lucy Gordy Wakefield, Motown Records' first sales chief. Wells left Motown in 1964 after a contract dispute following the release of "My Guy." "She didn't make a dime off of it," said her manager, Thomas "Beans" Bowles. Like many artists of the time. Wells was naive about the business end of the music, her friend Maye James said. "They were beat out of a lot of money, Mary included. They were just signing contracts, they were so happy to be making music," she said. Wells signed with 20th Century Fox records and later recorded for Atlantic- Atco and Jubilee. But she never approached her previous suc cess. Before she fell ill, she contin ued to perform in clubs and oldies revues. "Money was always tight, so she always had to work," James said. Wells was born in Detroit and began singing at 10 in local clubs and talent contests. At 16 she approached Motown Records founder Berry Gordy hoping to sell a song and found herself signed as a performer. "She wanted Berry Gordy to get someone to sing her song," said Esther Gordy Edwards, Wells' manager at Motown. "He said she could sing it, and she says, *Oh, I can't sing."' But she did, and "Bye, Bye Baby" became a hit Later she toured with the Beat les. When Wells was diagnosed with cancer, the two-pack-a-day smoker had no medical insurance, and she lost her modest home in Los Angeles. The Rhythm and Blues Foun dation in Washington raised more than $50,000 to pay her medical bills. Ross gave $15,000, Rod Stewart and Springsteen $10,000 apiece, and the Temptations $5,000. "People say this is a cruel busi ness ? and it is," she said after surgery in 1990. "But a lot of peo ple in the business do have hearts." She is survived by four chil dren and a brother. Funeral arrange ments were incomplete. S.C. minorities want share of BMW work COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? Some minority business owners say they want the state to help them get a share of the work building the new BMW plant in Greer. The governor's office could start by compiling a list of minority contractors for BMW to use, said James. T. Floyd, who has been part of the Governor's Competitiveness Council for several years. The governor's office has con tacted BMW to ensure that the automaker will be open to informa tion about minority-owned - businesses, said office spokesper son, Tucker Eskew. "That's not to offer any guaran tee," Eskew said. But Floyd said work has already begun for BMW, and minority contractors weren't informed. "They have started grading already," he said. NI know two or three minority contractors who own pretty good grading equipment, but nobody said anything to them." The president of Columbia's Urban League, J.T. McLawhorn, said that government offices, such as the Minority Business Develop ment Centers and the Governor's Office of Small and Minority Busi ness Assistance, should be aggres sive in helping minority businesses get BMW contracts. But minority business owners say they don't want a handout What they want is an entry so that we can compete on a fair and equal basis/' said John Brown, founder of South Carolina's largest minority-owned business. Brown, who runs Am -Pro Pro tective Agency Inc. in Columbia, said the owners calling for the state to help should step forward them selves. The Peace Center in Greenville is an example of how encouraging use of minority -owned businesses adds to a project, minority business leaders said. Julia Chiles Adams, director of the GreenVille human relations commission, said ihe opening of doors was not a handout but a good business decision! General contractor for the Peace Center, Fluor -Daniel, carved out areas of expertise and matched them with minority-owned busi nesses whenever possible. "There was no federal man date," Floyd said. "It was just a group of managers who decided for the Peace Center all projects would involve minority contractors as prime and subcontractors." ? Z To Floyd, the BMW case is dif ferent from the Peace Center. In this instance, the state is providing $150 million for the project. That finan cial involvement puts more respon sibility in state government's lap, he said. "If the stale can provide $150 million for this project, it should step forward and take responsibility for minority contractors," Floyd said. Students sterilized Continued from page A1 native Dr. C. Nash Herndon per formed many of the sterilizations. Chaitkin quotes Herndon as saying that the surgery was "usually" not done^ on "children younger than eight or ten years old." Herndon, 76, retired three years ago from Bowman Gray Medical School, where he was the chief geneticist for many years, but is not a surgeon. He was on the faculty in residency training in 1941 when the medical school first moved here. "I have never performed such an operation," he said this have never heard of Chaitkin." Although he maintained that sterilization of mentally retarded was not performed at Bowman Gray, he did acknowledge that there was a eugenics law in the state from the 40s through the 70s. Eugenics is the science of developing the best breeding population of the human race. "It permitted sterilization of mentally retarded," he explained. "They were the chief target. You had to have an 1Q of less than 70." Herndon also verified the exis tence of a group Chaitkin charges led the sterilization project, the Human Betterment League of North Carolina. Tobacco and extile mogul James G. Hanes was the president, and Gorden Gray's great-aunt, Alice Gray, was the secretary. Asked about the purpose of the League, Herndon answered, "It had to do with the general improvement of the human population, lb have a nice, well, I don't know exactly how to say that, but it didn't advocate sterilization. We were interested in seeing that the mentally retarded were brought under control as well as we could, but we didn't have any large-scale sterilization project Melpns are coming to town . . . along with silver queen corn, half-runners, blackberries, blueberries, sourdough bread, moravian taked goods and gernian johnson tomatoes! CITYMAMET Open Tlietdays and Thursdays 10:00am till 3:00pm 6th & Cherry Streets Downtown Wlnston-Sslsm were trying to prevent the mating of those people in the first place. That was a better way." Hemdon said the group was founded in 1946 and operated for about 10 years, after which "there was a general drop-off in interest." Hern don said race was not a * factor, fyit "if you're going to get picky and look at percentages, itt may have been higher for blacks." ? Chaitkin says the Sterilization League of America, a pro-fascist eugenics group from the 1930s, is ?vtr? ; ... . . * i f ' ? ?. . ? -if now called the Association for Vol untary Surgical Contraception "and is paid by the U.S. Agency for International Development to head up our government's program to sterilize predominantly non-white people in the Third World." Chaitkin charges that the Human Betterment League was the NC branch of the national eugenics sterilization movement. Asked if eugenics sterilizations were carried out at Bowman Gray, Bill Blance, director of information, yo iaJ i:t ifc.'Vrjjin i/lli!.. said, " I don't think we would have a comment on that because we know nothing about it" Chaitkin also charges that Dr. Clarence Gamble, heir to the Proc tor and Gamble soap fortune, was the sterilizers' national field opera tions director. Herndon verified that Gamble was associated with the Human Betterment League. "Gam ble came down here and stayed quite a lot He and Mr. Hanes were friends. It was a diffuse organiza tion. It collected a lot of people." injured^ - ?! We can help. Were paicionly if you collect. Practice limited to serious injury and wrongful death. LEWIS & DAGGETT ATTORNEYS AT LAW. P. A. Michael Lewis David D. Daggett Celeste Harris. R.N.. J,D. 765-7777 ? Phones answered 24 hours 285 Executive Park Blvd. Winston-Salem, NC 27103 :: vX-WvXv; A HISTORY OF TRIAD PEST CONTROL offers its customized Pest Control Service for $25m inside and out. (excludes kitchen cabinets) (Excluding flies, fleas and wood destroying organisms.) ? Money Back Guarantee on Customized Plans ? Odorless Chemicals ? Certified Radon Testers ? One time, Monthly or Quarterly Service ? Senior Citizen Discount 1535 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive 788-3020 1-800-TRIAD-99: N.C. Lic.#FW967 N.C. Watts . | Marilyn Gilliam ' . f < -???? --r-Tri^r BuyOrlmprDve AHomemASpecial Wachovia Loon. 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WACHOVIA Member FD1C Wachovia Bank of North Carolina Minimum down payment <>f required A representative sample of atypical loan as of March W2 would Iv toO monthly payments ol S8 14 per $1 ,000 borrowed at an Annual Percentage Rate of ^ 1/8% it1 An Equal Housing Lender t?r
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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July 30, 1992, edition 1
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