PASSINGS: Alphonsus ‘Arrow’ Cassell, James Winner

Alphonsus “Arrow” Cassell, 60, a soca musician who won global fame with his 1982 hit “Hot Hot Hot,” died Wednesday of complications from brain cancer at his home on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, said his brother, Justin Cassell, a singer-songwriter who often collaborated with him.

“Arrow” Cassell was among the best-known artists of soca, a Caribbean style derived from soul and calypso that emphasizes music over lyrics.

“Calypso is political, tropical, slower,” Cassell said in a 1996 interview. “Soca is dance. ‘Feeling hot hot hot’ ... it makes you forget that there’s a volcano and [remember] there’s fun to be had.”

At the time of the interview, Cassell was producing music that aimed to reassure Montserrat residents who’d had to flee their homes when the Soufriere Hills volcano erupted in 1995.

Owner of a clothing store, he also was among dozens of business owners forced to evacuate the British territory’s capital, Plymouth.

“Arrow” Cassell was born Nov. 16, 1949, into a family that produced two calypso kings at Montserrat’s annual Christmas carnival. Cassell was crowned Montserrat’s calypso king four times before focusing on his international career.

In the 1980s he performed on tours in Africa, the United States, Europe and Japan.

Buster Poindexter had a U.S. hit in the late 1980s with his cover of “Hot Hot Hot.”

James Winner, 81, an entrepreneur who marketed the steering-wheel lock known as the Club, died Tuesday in a head-on collision in western Pennsylvania.

Two others also died when Winner’s sport utility vehicle crossed into oncoming traffic “for unknown reasons” and collided with their car, the state police said. The investigation was continuing.

Winner sold the first Club in western Pennsylvania in the 1980s before creating Winner International, which has now sold more than 10 million of the popular lock. The device prevents car thieves from driving away — and its visibility can be a powerful deterrent in itself.

Winner often related the story of how he invented the lock after his Cadillac was stolen, and he recalled how fellow soldiers in the Korean War put locks and chains on the steering wheels of their jeeps to keep others from driving away in the vehicles. In 1993, an Ohio mechanic named Charles Johnson filed suit in federal court, claiming that he had invented the Club. Winner settled with Johnson for a reported $10.5 million.

Winner was born in the town of Transfer, Pa., and worked on his family’s farm from age 5. He attended school in a one-room schoolhouse before joining the Army at age 17.

After his success as a businessman, Winner became widely known for his philanthropy in western Pennsylvania.

-- Times staff and wire reports

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