Cleo Patra Brown; Boogie-Woogie Piano Player, Radio Show Host

Cleo Patra Brown, 91, a boogie-woogie piano player and 1930s radio show host who performed with Bing Crosby. Miss Brown made about two dozen 78-r.p.m. records for the Decca label, including “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie,” “The Stuff Is Here and It’s Mellow” and “When Hollywood Goes Black and Tan.” In 1935, she succeeded Fats Waller as host of a CBS radio show and was Bing Crosby’s guest on “Kraft Music Hall.” After battling alcohol and heroin addictions, she moved to Colorado in 1950 to become a nurse. She spent most of her remaining years doing missionary work. Reluctant to play jazz again, calling it “the devil’s music,” she did appear as a guest in 1985 on National Public Radio’s “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz” program. On April 15 in Denver.