PASSINGS: John Warhola, Bernie Wilson

John Warhola

Brother raised artist Andy Warhol

John Warhola, 85, the older brother who helped raise Pop Art icon Andy Warhol and later helped establish the Andy Warhol Museum in their native Pittsburgh, died Christmas Eve after battling pneumonia at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, according to his son, Donald Warhola.

Warhola was one of three founding members of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and was its vice president for 20 years. The foundation established the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh in 1994, seven years after the artist — whose given name was Andy Warhola — died at age 58 of complications after gall bladder surgery.

After their father Andrij Warhola died in 1942, John Warhola had the responsibility of raising his younger brother, Andy, and making sure he attended college. Their father had purchased enough savings bonds to pay for Andy’s first two years of college but had told John the rest was up to him.

Andy Warhol went on to attend the School of Fine Arts at what was then Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University). He was a successful commercial artist before becoming known for his Pop Art, including silk-screened images of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, detailed renderings of Campbell’s Soup cans and other avant-garde fare.

“He really trusted my father as a father figure,” Donald Warhola told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, saying John Warhola was “very diligent in his responsibilities” with the Warhol foundation.

Bernie Wilson

Baritone in Blue Notes R&B group

Bernie Wilson, 64, baritone member of the rhythm and blues group Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes that produced the 1972 hit “If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” died Sunday at Kresson View Center in Voorhees, N.J., after a stroke and a heart attack, said his cousin Faith Peace-Mazzccua.

Philadelphia International Records, the group’s former record company, said Wilson’s death leaves Lloyd Parks as the sole surviving member of the group’s lineup at the time, which also featured Teddy Pendergrass and Lawrence Brown.

The group produced a string of R&B hits in the 1970s and helped define the Sound of Philadelphia.

“If You Don’t Know Me by Now” topped the R&B charts and made the top five on the pop charts. The hits that followed included “I Miss You,” “Bad Luck,” “Wake Up Everybody,” and the dance track “The Love I Lost,” which has been credited as one of the first disco records, according to an All Music Guide biography.

“He left home at 16 as a pauper and came back home a millionaire,” Peace-Mazzccua said of Wilson, a Philadelphia native.

— Times staff and wire reports

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