BENEFITS

Friends of blues pianist Alex Moore, 89, saw to it that he got a decent burial Saturday in Dallas. Moore, who recorded his first album in 1929, was living on a $250 monthly Social Security check and had virtually no money to show for a half-century of playing throughout Texas. Though Moore was never a commercial success, he had a large following among blacks. After his death Friday, black musicians and artists scrambled to raise money so that their idol would not be buried in a pauper’s grave. “This represents the recognition of the passing of an elder who has given us so much,” said Curtis King, president of the Dallas Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters. Dallas folklorist Alex Govenar said, “It’s not too difficult to believe the man didn’t have money when he died because black artists are so often undercompensated for their work.”