“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” –Bruce Lee
In the early morning hours of December 11, 1964, fifty years ago this month, Los Angeles police were summoned to the Hacienda Motel at 9137 South Figueroa Street for a report of gunshots and commotion. The manager let them into her office/apartment where they found an African-American man slumped against the wall, dead. The only clothing the deceased was wearing was a sports coat and one shoe. He had a bullet hole in his left chest. The manager informed the officers that she had shot him at close range. She also informed the officers that the deceased was the popular singer Sam Cooke.
What a performer like Cooke, at the top of his popularity, was doing in a seedy $3 a night motel managers office, almost nude except for the shoe and sports coat, is still under debate today. The top 40 hits singer who brought us hits, such as “You Send Me,” “A Change is Gonna Come,” “Cupid,” “Chain Gang,” “Wonderful World,” “Twisting the Night Away,” and others, surprised the public by the circumstances of his death; but those who knew him well were less than shocked.
Samuel Cook (he added the “e” later to class up his name) was born to a Baptist minister and his wife in the Mississippi delta town of Clarksdale. When Sam was two, Rev. Cook moved his family to Chicago. Sam attended Wendell Phillips Academy High School where Nat “King” Cole had attended. Cooke was a good student and was voted “Most Likely To Succeed.” His roots were in gospel music, singing with his brothers and sisters in a group called The Singing Children. He later joined the Highway QCs. Neighbor Lou Rawls convinced Cooke to join him with the gospel group, The Soul Stirrers. Cooke’s good looks and singing style brought the group a much younger audience, especially among young females.
His popularity grew and he made the switch from gospel to pop music. His first release “You Send Me” debuted in 1957 and reached #1 in R & B’s billboard chart.
In 1957 he also married his second wife and childhood sweetheart Barbara Campbell. The wedding took place in his grandmother’s home in Chicago with his father officiating. His first marriage to Dorothy Mohawk, ended in divorce and she was killed in an automobile accident in 1959. Sam and Barbara had three children; but a son Vincent, born in 1961, died in 1963.
Cooke had 30 U.S. top 40 hits between 1957 and 1964 and sold over 10 million records. He should be remembered as a groundbreaker for black artists. He started his own music publishing company in 1959. He was able to negotiate a deal with RCA to get ownership of his master recordings in 30 years. Cooke started his own record label, SAR Records where he was able to help other black artists achieve fame.
He was a superstar with a beautiful home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles in the Hollywood Hills. He was proud of his red Ferrari.
On December 10, about 9 PM, Cooke went to Maroni’s restaurant to have dinner with his record producer Al Schmitt and his wife Joan. Friends and fans stopped by the table to visit as the Schmitts and Cooke consumed several cocktails. Several friends lured him into the bar where Cooke spied a cute Asian-English 22 year old named Elisa (“Lisa”) Boyle. Cooke never returned to his table and sent word to the Schmitts that he would see them later at PJ’s, a nightclub. When Cooke, accompanied by Boyle finally got to PJs, the Schmitt’s had left. This is where the story has several versions. Lisa Boyle’s narrative tells of her asking Cooke to take her home. Cooke supposedly insisted on taking a ride where they ended up at the Hacienda Motel, Boyle claiming she was being kidnapped. The motel manager insisted they register as Mr. and Mrs. Sam Cooke. In the room Boyle claimed Cooke tried to rape her and she escaped in to the bathroom; she came out to find Cooke undressed. She grabbed her clothes and unknowingly picked up Cooke’s shirt, pants and underwear. She ran to the manager’s office and banged on the door. Afraid that Cooke would follow her, she ran down the street, got dressed, ditched Cooke’s clothes under a stairway and called police.
Meanwhile Cooke ran to the manager’s office where he thought Boyle was hiding. He pushed his way into the manager’s office/apartment. Manager Bertha Franklin tried to get him to leave but he grabbed her arms and pushed her. She ran to her television set where she kept a .22 handgun. She shot three times, missed twice but the third shot was from several inches away, piercing Cooke’s lungs and heart. Franklin told police that he exclaimed “Lady, you shot me!” and fell to the floor. He reportedly stood up, Franklin hit him with a broom handle and he went down again and died.
There was a coroner’s inquest where the jury found it was a justifiable homicide and Boyle and Franklin were not charged. Franklin sued the Cooke estate for punitive damages and injuries asking for $200,000 and settled for $30,000. Friends immediately were suspicious of the official explanation. Why would Cooke choose such a seedy motel? Where was the large amount of cash he was supposedly carrying? When Cooke went to the motel office to register, Boyle stayed in his car with the engine running; why didn’t she escape if kidnapped?
The more realistic version is that Cooke knew Boyle was a prostitute (she was arrested a month later on prostitution charges) and her “office” was the Hacienda Motel where the Manager Franklin was an ex-madam with prior convictions. Cooke was either jumped in the room (which would explain his extensive injuries) or Boyle just grabbed most of his clothes (to keep him in the room) and went to the manager’s office to split the cash she took from Cooke’s pockets. The almost nude Cooke was bold enough to charge the office (his .16 blood alcohol level fueled his anger) and Boyle was told by Franklin to run down to the payphone claiming rape and kidnapping to put Cooke in a bad light. Either tale ends up with a bullet in Cooke’s chest.
The body of Sam Cooke was handled by the former People’s Funeral Home in Los Angeles. Public open casket viewing was held. Cooke was then flown to the A. R. Leak Funeral Home in Chicago where another viewing was held. Fans waited in 8 degree temperatures to pass by the reported $4,000 (presumably bronze) open casket with glass viewing plate.
15,000 people tried to attend the funeral December 17 at the Tabernacle Baptist Church on the South Side where The Staple Singers sang the “Old Rugged Cross,” Lou Rawls offered “Just A Closer Walk With Thee” and Billy Preston played a hymn on the organ. The church only held 1,500 but 5,000 squeezed in to hear the eulogies. Radio station WVON broadcast the service. Cooke was returned to Los Angeles for a second funeral on December 19 at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church where an overflow crowd stood in the rain. Ray Charles offered a musical tribute. He was buried at famed Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. His bronze marker reads, “Until the day break and the shadows flee away.”
The seedy circumstances of the death of Sam Cooke cannot take away from his achievements or his lasting legacy. His music is still instantly recognizable today as it was fifty years ago. Posthumously he received induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and in 2008 Rolling Stone named him 16th of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”
Many called him the “King of Soul.” A poor end for a rich life.
“It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die. ‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there, beyond the sky.” –“A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke