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Frankie Beverly, R&B singer and Philadelphia native, dies at 77, family announces
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Legendary R&B singer and Philadelphia native Frankie Beverly has passed away. He was 77.
His family shared the heartbreaking news Tuesday morning on Instagram.
According to the post, Beverly, whose real name is Howard Stanley Beverly, passed away on Monday, Sept. 10.
“He lived his life with pure soul as one would say, and for us, no one did it better. He lived for his music, family and friends,” the post read.
The family has not shared details regarding Beverly’s death and has asked for privacy during this difficult time.
Beverly got his start in music early, performing as a soloist in church while growing up in Philadelphia’s East Germantown neighborhood. As a teen, he sang with an ensemble called “The Silhouettes” before forming his own doo-wop group, “The Blenders.”
He formed the group “Raw Soul” in Philly in 1970, which would eventually become known as “Frankie Beverly and Maze.” Beverly then moved to San Francisco where he worked with legend Marvin Gaye, according to Beverly’s website.
“The Motown master would take the group under his wing and it was Gaye who suggested the group change their name. Frankie Beverly and Maze was born,” the website read.
Beverly was the lead singer, songwriter, producer and founder of the band Frankie Beverly and Maze.
In May, Beverly, along with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, Councilmember Cindy Bass and community members, gathered for the street dedication of “Frankie Beverly Way” in East Germantown.
“This is to someone who has made a significant contribution to the lives of Philadelphians,” Bass said during the dedication. “Anyone who knows music knows that Philadelphia is a music town, and Frankie has made such a contribution.”
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Remains of decapitated “vampire child” found in Poland, archaeologists say
Workers removing tree branches near a historic cathedral in Chelm, Poland, unearthed something unexpected when they came upon two children’s skeletons in a shallow burial pit where no gravesites are marked, the government’s Culture Ministry said.
Neither skeleton was buried in a coffin and one of the children was buried with the characteristics of an anti-vampire burial, Dr. Stanisława Gołuba, the archaeologist leading the research, said in a Facebook post. The child’s head was separated from its body, the post said, and the skull was facing down into the ground arranged on a stone. This, plus the way the skeletons were oriented, appears to be consistent with ancient burial methods used to prevent a person thought to be a demonic entity from exiting the grave, Gołuba said.
The skeletons appeared to be from the Early Middle Ages.
The children’s skeletons were removed from their graves, documented and waiting for further analysis, the statement said.
It’s the most recent in a series of findings in Poland of remains buried in ways that suggest people at the time believed they were dealing with vampires or other supernatural entities.
In 2022, Polish researchers found the remains of a woman at a gravesite in the village of Pień with a sickle around her neck and a triangular padlock on her foot. According to ancient beliefs, the padlock was supposed to prevent a deceased person thought to be a vampire from returning from the dead. The sickle was thought to cut the neck if the corpse tried to rise from the grave.
Professor Dariusz Polinski of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun said this type of practice became common throughout Poland in the 17th century in response to a reported vampire epidemic. In addition to practices with a sickle, sometimes corpses were burned, smashed with stones or had their heads and legs cut off.
Six so-called “vampire skeletons” were also found at a cemetery in northwest Poland in 2013. Each was buried with either a sickle laid across their necks or stones placed beneath their jaws said Lesley Gregoricka of the University of South Alabama who led the research team.
contributed to this report.
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