Rock Pioneer Domino Is Believed Rescued

Antoine “Fats” Domino, the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer who was feared for days to have been a victim of Hurricane Katrina, is apparently safe.

Karen Domino White, one of his daughters, said Thursday that a photo taken Monday of a man being rescued from floodwaters showed her father.

Domino’s warm, sing-along hits “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Blueberry Hill” are among the most famous recordings by a New Orleans artist. They not only helped popularize rock in the ‘50s, but put him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Concern over his safety surfaced earlier in the week when Domino’s longtime agent, Al Embry, reported him missing.

Embry, whose office is in Nashville, said Thursday that he phoned the 77-year-old Domino on Sunday, urging him to evacuate his residence in the city’s Lower 9th Ward, but the singer told him that he was going to “ride out” the hurricane.

After the floodwaters hit, Embry was unable to reach Domino, and calls to city and state officials weren’t able to help locate the singer-pianist.

Embry said Thursday that he had heard from one of Domino’s relatives in Dallas that the singer had left the city, but Embry was still anxious because earlier reported sightings of Domino had proved inaccurate.

The mystery was apparently solved when Domino’s daughter saw a New Orleans Times-Picayune photo of a man she said was her father being taken from a boat by rescuers Monday night. It wasn’t immediately clear how she happened to see it Thursday. She said she doesn’t know her father’s current whereabouts.

Domino has lived since the early ‘60s in the neighborhood where he grew up, 18 blocks from the house where he was born in 1928. In a 2000 profile, NPR described his home as a “sort of chieftain’s compound that is oddly extravagant and modest at the same time.”

The predominantly working-class neighborhood where it is located was heavily flooded.

Although once one of rock’s most prolific hit makers, Domino has long maintained a low profile, preferring to spend time at home rather than tour.

In a rare interview in 2002 that marked the release of a four-disc retrospective, he told USA Today, “I traveled all over for about 50 years, I love a lot of places and I’ve been a lot of places, [but] I just don’t care to leave home.”