As soon as the show aired, Kim decided to let it all out in an Instagram rant. Here is her message to Kenya:

We still don’t quite get why Kim- a classy legendary actress- is on Real Housewives, because she isn’t the wild, reality show type, but if nothing else, the show has folks talking about her again, which is always a good thing. Some may say that Kenya is hitting below the belt with her gay allegations, and yeah she is, but welcome to reality TV Kim Fields, where all is far in love and war…and ratchetness. I wonder if Kim is gonna think twice before re-upping on next season’s contract though.

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If you’re from the Old School, you probably remember actress, Lee Chamberlin. She starred in the classic 70’s comic films, “Let’s Do It Again” and “Uptown Saturday Night.”

We wanted to bring her life and death to the forefront because we consider Lee to be one of those unsung heroes of the old school era. With all of the groundwork she laid as an actress, not only in the aforementioned films, but also on TV shows like “Electric Company,” “All My Children,” “James At 16,” “What’s Happening,” as well as many stage plays, Mrs. Chamberlin paved the way for many phenomenal African American actresses of today, such as Viola Davis, Kerry Washington, Taraji P. Henson and the list goes on, and for that, we salute Lee Chamberlin.

Now what many don’t know is that Mrs. Chamberlin passed away pretty suddenly in 2014 at the age of 76 years young. She became ill in May and in the very next month, in June, she took her last breathe. Lee was survived by her two children- a son and a daughter- and her Dad (who has since passed away).

I LOVE OLD SCHOOL MUSIC spoke exclusively to Lee’s daughter, Ekayani Chamberlin, who gave us details about her Mother’s life and her sudden passing. Check it out below:

ILoveOldSchoolMusic: Your Mother passed away in 2014 from cancer, correct?

Ekayani Chamberlin: “Yes.”

ILOSM: What type of cancer did she have?

EC: “It was a type of uterine cancer. This is what I want to say about it- My mother had a passion for her work that exceeded her body’s workload. And she would work her self to death, you know because she felt an urgency and a passion for what she was doing. So that, coupled with the move to France to establish her playwriting project, which she had established to nurture playwrights of color, who she didn’t feel were getting a safe place to incubate their work- it was a dream that she had for 20 years plus. And so when she finally got the opportunity to do that in 2011, she took it.

That being said, whenever she would start a new endeavor and a business and all of that, there were stresses involved with that. So the stresses that were involved with that you know…and maybe not slowing down enough and going ‘Okay, I’m 73 now, and while I don’t believe in being put in a box, and while I don’t subscribe to ageism, maybe I should rest a little more’…you know. But that’s not what she did and she was also the generation of individuals that kind of believed that…you should just do everything yourself.”

Lee Chamberlin with Sidney Poitier…

“My mother was born in 1938, so the different obstacles that people of color faced then- there was know internet, there was no Instagram and Twitter and Facebook…but just doing things like fundraising or getting the word out that you’re doing a certain thing, you know, those things weren’t there. So [my mother] really, she overtaxed herself. And everyone has their Achilles heel, because we can all have the material money, but the material body is subject to leave. And so if you don’t stay on your P’s and Q’s, if you don’t take the time to just acknowledge ‘Okay now I really need a nap,’ or ‘I need some more green vegetables’ or whatever it is, that’s gonna catch up with you and that’s what ended up happening to my Mom.”

“This is a cautionary tale for other people: I remember that when [my Mom] returned to France, before her final symptoms and stages had kind of kicked in from the stress and before she came back to the United States, I remember speaking to her on the phone and saying ‘Listen Mom, I know that you really wanna do this project- this Playwrights Inn Project- I know how much it means to you, but wouldn’t it be better if you just go a little easy on yourself and really take a year off? You know, to rest, to kind of slow things down, so you can recharge and recover and then move forward…the project is still going to be there.’ But she just wouldn’t hear it, she felt an urgency, she wanted to get it done and there were probably also different deadlines to meet. She had a type of ‘do-it-myself’ mentality, not that she never asked me to do anything for her, but she probably could have leaned on me more.”

Lee Chamberlin’s son, Matthew…

Ekayani described her dad, Daniel Edward Chamberlin (who passed away in 1999), as “a handsome, average White guy.” He was married to her Mom for 24 years up until his death. Ekayani also revealed that her Mom is mixed with African American and Brazilian heritage. Lee’s father, Bernando LaPallo, was born and partially raised in Brazil- his father was Brazilian and his mother was African American. Lee’s original last name is actually LaPallo.

Lee’s dad, Bernando, lived to be 114 years old! He passed away on December of 2015 and he lived an extremely healthy lifestyle. Up until the end, he was still shopping for himself, cooking, bathing, and shaving all on his own. Ekayani was very close to her grandfather and she said that before he passed, he was still walking a mile and a half everyday, had all his hair and his teeth, and had no wrinkles.

Bernando was a wellness and healthy living author who wrote books, such as “Age Less Live More- Achievidence Health & Vitality at 107 Years and Beyond” and “Beyond 100: How To Live Well Into Your Second Century.” He also was once mentored by the late Marcus Garvey.

EC: “My grandfather, Bernando, was a five star chef who studied at Sorbonne University in France and my mother also studied at the Sorbonne in France, as part of the exchange program at NYU, which is where she actually graduated from and she got honors in French grammar with oral and written.”

She also said that is was her great-grandfather who taught a very healthy lifestyle to her centenarian grandfather, who then passed it on to Lee Chamberlin:

EC: “My mother ate organic, you couldn’t get her to eat any kind of any other thing, she just wouldn’t eat it. And oh, did she LOVE going to the farmer’s markets, she knew all the farmers [and loved] buying her oranges fresh. She had an appreciation of food that she lived by from her father. My mother always made sure that my brother and I always ate fresh food, we made food from scratch.”

Ekayani revealed that when her beloved mother passed away, the final moments of her life were beautiful and she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Lee Chamberlin died at her son, Matthew’s home in North Carolina, surrounded by all of her family and loved ones. May she continue to rest peacefully.

ILOSM family, Lee’s sudden demise to cancer is just another example that we all need to pay attention to the warning signs and stay on top of our health. We’re old schoolers and while we are all very proud to be old school, we have to also remember that with age comes a higher possibility of health risks. So please family, let’s be sure to look out for ourselves, manage our stress levels and monitor changes within our bodies…our lives depend on it.

The post RIP To This “Lets Do It Again” Actress, Daughter Details Her Sudden Death appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

For those of us who are fans of the 70’s film, Car Wash, we all remember the character, “Geronimo,” who was played by actor, Raymond Vitte. Vitte was also know for his roles in the films, 9 To 5 (1980), Up In Smoke (1978), and Thank God It’s Friday (1978), as well as in TV shows like All In The Family, That’s My Mama, Sanford and Son, The Quest, and several more.

The thing that many of us didn’t know was that Vitte died in 1983 at the young age of 33 and what’s equally surprising is the way that he died. He died while in police custody of the LAPD under very suspicious circumstances that many of his family members and friends, like Donna Summer, believed were really fishy.
Loved ones described Vitte as an extremely religious person, who was devoted to his christian faith. At the time of his death, there were many holes in the story of the police report and his death certificate was allegedly sealed by the LAPD. Raymond Vitte’s wife, Ernesta, was 3 months pregnant when he died and she, Donna Summer, and several others spoke out publicly about their suspicions in the article you’re about to read below.

We wanted to share this with y’all because it’s been 33 years since Vitte’s death and we still are witnessing “suspicious” deaths at the hands of law enforcement in 2016.  By the end of 2015, young black men were nine times more likely than any other race to be killed by police officers, and 1,134 of them were murdered by law enforcement in 2015 alone! Therefore the details surrounding Vitte’s death are still very relevant today. Scroll down to read the details below…
Here is what was reported in 1983, shortly after Robert Vitte’s death via United Press International:

LOS ANGELES — Actor Raymond Vitte, who died minutes after [an alleged] weekend fight with police, was not beaten to death by the officers, the coroner’s office said Tuesday.

Spokesman Bill Gold said preliminary reports of an autopsy showed ‘superficial injuries consistent with a struggle were found, but they were not responsible for his death.’ He also said no needle marks were found on Vitte’s body, and said there was no evidence a chokehold was applied.

Now here is where (in that same 1983 article) Vitte’s family and friends say there was something really suspicious about those findings:

Earlier in the day, a group including singer Donna Summer and the president of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood chapter of the NAACP held a news conference to question the circumstances surrounding the death of the star.

Vitte’s pastor, mother and his pregnant wife, Ernesta, appeared at the same news conference, defending Vitte’s reputation and questioning circumstances of his death.

Miss Summer complained bitterly ‘that a man who’s basically minding his own business in his own home, who happens to be creating a disturbance somehow, is now dead because his neighbors called the police.’

‘Is it more important that he be quieted and that his neighbors have peace?’ she asked a reporter after the news conference, held at her Hollywood recording studio.

‘We’re less one person because his neighbors complained about some noise. That doesn’t make sense to me. I think it’s more important to have the man and if the man is noisy, OK, that’s one thing. But I think our priorities are very drastically off.’

Miss Summer said she was shocked and ‘baffled’ by the death and added, ‘I’m devastated because he’s also my brother in Christ and I love him.’

The Rev. Billy Ingram, pastor of the Maranatha Community Church in suburban Inglewood, described Vitte as ‘a diligent and persistent Christian’ and said accounts of his death were not in his character.

Willis Edwards of the NAACP…criticized the police role in Vitte’s death. He asked the district attorney to investigate and urged the Police Commission ‘to halt the brutalization of black people.’

‘It’s an extremely sad day for all black people who live in this community,’ he said. ‘Once again, we have an unfortunate example of excessive police force.’

Actress Sheila Frazier, who did not speak at the news conference, said earlier in telephone interviews that Vitte was ‘not a drug-crazed fanatic’ but ‘a solid, loving man.’

She also suggested that Vitte’s chanting, which police said included the name of Mohammed, may have been the Pentecostal practice of ‘speaking in tongues.’

Vitte died at a hospital where he was taken by officers after he stopped breathing in the back of a patrol car.

Lt. Charles Higbie said officers summoned by neighbors in the actor’s Studio City apartment complex found Vitte alone in his apartment clad only in undershorts and a shirt. The actor’s ‘religious shouting’ had continued for more than 12 hours before the neighbors called police, Higbie said.

Vitte ordered the officers off the porch and ‘placed a curse on them,’ he said. In an ensuing struggle, Vitte was struck several times with a baton and sprayed in the face with tear gas.

The actor ran from officers and fell at the side of building’s swimming pool, Higbie said. He then was handcuffed and ‘was carried screaming’ to a squad car to be taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation. Officers noticed on the way that he had stopped breathing and detoured to a closer facility, where Vitte was pronounced dead.

This sounds foul on many levels and after 33 years years, the family of Ray Vitte deserves an unbiased and thorough investigation.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, old school news with a new point of view

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