Little Milton

What’d He Say?

Seven Spanish angels took one of their own home last week when Brother Ray Charles, whose final Austin appearance came at 2001’s KGSR Blues Festival, passed at age 73. As his lump-raising “America the Beautiful” wafted over Waterloo Park that warm May night, no one knew it would be one of the last times simple patriotism could exist on its own, without being inextricably linked first with devastating grief and then belligerent militarism. Thanks, Brother Ray.

This article appears in June 18 • 2004.

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