Those We Lost — September 3

Honoring those we lost on September 3 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Papa Jo Jones

Full name: Jonathan David Samuel Jones

Born October 7, 1911 — died September 3, 1985

Jazz drummer and architect of modern swing.

As the pulse of the great Count Basie rhythm section, Jones shifted timekeeping from the bass drum to the ride cymbal and hi-hat, creating the lighter, flowing swing that made modern jazz drumming possible. Bebop and everything after begins with Papa Jo.

Major Lance

Born April 4, 1939 — died September 3, 1994

Chicago soul singer.

Lance’s Curtis Mayfield-penned hits "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" helped define the bright Chicago soul sound of the 1960s, and his records later became treasures of Britain’s Northern soul scene. His daughter, Keisha Lance Bottoms, became mayor of Atlanta.

Ted Ross

Full name: Theodore Ross Roberts

Born June 30, 1934 — died September 3, 2002

Stage and screen actor.

Ross won the Tony Award for playing the Cowardly Lion in the original Broadway production of The Wiz, then re-created the role on film alongside Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. His courageous, comic Lion remains one of Black Broadway’s most beloved performances.

Michael Clarke Duncan

Born December 10, 1957 — died September 3, 2012

Actor and Academy Award nominee.

Duncan dug ditches and guarded nightclub doors in Chicago before Hollywood found him, then earned an Oscar nomination for his towering, tender John Coffey in The Green Mile. He became one of the most recognizable and beloved character actors of his generation.

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor

Born April 4, 1937 — died September 3, 2016

Culinary anthropologist, author, and broadcaster.

Her classic book Vibration Cooking celebrated the Gullah Geechee foodways of her South Carolina roots, and her NPR commentaries made Black food history national news. She insisted, decades before food media caught up, that the story of American cooking is a Black story.