PASSINGS: Bernard St. Clair Lee, Billy Ingram
Bernard St. Clair Lee
Baritone singer in Hues Corporation
Bernard St. Clair Lee, 66, a baritone singer and original member of the Hues Corporation, which had an early disco hit in 1974 with “Rock the Boat,” died Tuesday at his home in Lake Elsinore, said Ava Dupree, a family spokeswoman. He died of natural causes.
The Hues Corporation, a soul trio whose name was a pun on Los Angeles aviation giant Hughes Corp., was formed in 1969 by Lee, soprano Hubert Ann Kelly and tenor Fleming Williams.
“Rock the Boat,” written by band manager Waldo Holmes, shot to No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts in 1974, and the group followed with another top 20 hit that year in “Rockin’ Soul.”
Kelly later left the group to become a minister and Williams died. Lee had recently been performing with Elaine Woodard and Bruce Glover as a reformed Hues Corporation.
Lee was born in San Francisco in 1944 and attended Santa Monica College.
Billy Ingram, a basketball star at Biola University in the 1970s who went on to found Maranatha Community Church in the Crenshaw district and serve as its pastor for more than 30 years, died Tuesday at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center after suffering a heart attack, his family announced. He was 58.
—Los Angeles Times staff and wire reports
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