PASSINGS: John E. Carter, Elmer Kelton

John E. Carter

R&B tenor was in Dells, Flamingos

John E. Carter, R&B lead tenor and two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, died Friday at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in his hometown of Harvey, Ill. He was 75 and had lung cancer.

Carter, known for his falsetto, was the last surviving founding member of the doo-wop group the Flamingos, which gained fame with such hits as “Golden Teardrops” and their reworking of the pop classic “I Only Have Eyes for You.”

Carter, who was born June 2, 1934, left the Flamingos the first time in 1957 to do military service and left permanently in 1960 to join the Dells, which had been formed in the early 1950s by some of his high school friends.

The Dells’ 1954 breakout hit, “Oh What A Night,” sold more than a million records when it was reissued in 1969 with Carter on falsetto lead. The Dells were used by Robert Townsend as a basis for his movie “The Five Heartbeats.”

The Dells performed publicly for one of the last times in 2004, when they did an outdoor concert in downtown Chicago to celebrate their induction that year into the hall of fame.

The Flamingos were inducted in 2001.

Elmer Kelton

Western novelist wrote 62 books

Western novelist Elmer Kelton, whose book “The Good Old Boys” was made into a TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, has died of natural causes in San Angelo, Texas. He was 83.

Kelton wrote 62 fiction and nonfiction books. “The Good Old Boys” was made into a 1995 movie for the TNT cable network. Kelton also was known for “The Man Who Rode Midnight” and “The Time It Never Rained.”

His first novel, “Hot Iron,” was published in 1956, and he recently finished his last book, “Texas Standoff,” due out next year. Another novel, “Other Men’s Horses,” will be released this fall.

Born in Crane, Texas, Kelton grew up on the McElroy Ranch in west Texas. He served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946 and saw combat in Europe during World War II.

He earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin and spent 15 years as the farm and ranch writer-editor for the San Angelo Standard-Times. He also worked as an editor for Sheep and Goat Raiser magazine and Livestock Weekly, from which he retired in 1990.

-- times wire reports. news.obits@latimes.com