Musicians Who Died in May 2006

May 7 Machiko Soga, Japanese actress, singer, and tokusatsu legend, dies of pancreatic cancer at 67
May 8 Viola Mae Wilkerson, American pop singer ("Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now"), dies of cancer at 69
May 10 Soraya [Lamilla], Colombian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, arranger and record producer ("Amor En Tus Ojos / Love In Your Eyes"'; "Casi"), dies of breast cancer at 37
May 11 Yossi Banai, Israeli pop and cabaret singer, and actor dies of cancer at 74
May 13 Johnnie Wilder, Jr., American singer (Heatwave), dies at 56
May 14 Lewis "Lew" Anderson, American actor and musician (The Howdy Doody Show), dies of prostate cancer at 84
May 17 Laurence Shurtliff [Ram Rod], American music executive and roadie (the Grateful Dead), dies at 61
May 19 Freddie Garrity, English pop singer (Freddie and the Dreamers - "I'm Telling You Now"), dies at 69
May 21 Billy Walker, American country music singer and guitarist ("Charlie's Shoes"), dies, along with his wife and two band members, in a single vehicle car accident, at 77
May 21 Katherine Dunham, American dancer (Casbah; Stormy Weather), choreographer (Metroplitan opera, 1963; Joplin's Treemonisha, 1972), and social activist, dies at 96
May 22 Jack Fallon, Canadian-British jazz double and electric bass player, fiddler (The Beatles - "Don't Pass Me By"), and concert promoter, dies at 90
May 25 Desmond Dekker [Dacres], Jamaican reggae pioneer (The Aces - "007 (Shanty Town)"; "Israelites"), dies of a heart attack at 64
May 25 Otto Zykan, Austrian pianist and composer, dies at 71
May 27 Dieter Acker, German composer and pedagogue, dies at 65
May 31 Lula Mae Hardaway, American songwriter ("I Was Made to Love Her"; "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours"), and mother of singer Stevie Wonder, dies at 76