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Law enforcement authorities have confirmed the human remains that were discovered inside of a garbage bag 40 years ago, are that of The O’Jays’ former guitarist, Frank “Frankie” Little Jr..

The year was 1982 when the sad discovery of ‘partial human remains’ were found by employees of a business located in Twinsburg, OH. At that time, the identity of the deceased person was unknown, and although local authorities investigated the case, it went cold over the years. However, the case was reopened decades later, and thankfully so.

“Thanks to the genealogical research of the DNA Doe Project, unidentified remains discovered on February 18, 1982 have been identified as Frank ‘Frankie’ Little Jr., born in 1943, from Cleveland, Ohio. His identity remained a mystery for almost 40 years,” read a new press release from Twinsburg Police Department.

According to the press release, Frank’s identity was determined 40 years later, by using DNA samples taken from relatives of Frank’s. The statement also stated that the results have now been “confirmed by Dr. Lisa Kohler of the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office.”

While police say not much is known about his disappearance or murder, Dr. Kohler confirmed the manner of Little’s death was homicide, per the press release.

Although police say the details of Frank Little Jr.’s disappearance were not conclusive, Dr. Kohler concluded that his death was in fact a homicide, as mentioned within the official press release.

Frank’s family members are grateful for this discovery:

Via People– “It’s amazing,” Margaret O’Sullivan, Little’s cousin who lives in Cleveland, told the Akron Beacon Journal. “We’re glad that we have closure now. We know he’s deceased.”

“It’s definitely nice that we can give some answers to the family and hopefully they have some sense of closure,” Twinsburg Detective Eric Hendershott told ABC affiliate WEWS. “He had a life, and ultimately he ended up here in Twinsburg, with his life taken by another.”

Frank Little Jr. was a member of the O’Jays in the 1960s. He was last known to be alive in the mid-1970s. By the time his partial remains were discovered by store employees (of a business that has since closed), police confirmed that his remains were two to four years old by that time.

Initial leads in the case were supposedly followed-up…but yet, the case over who the remains belonged to went cold for 20 years. Maybe now, Frank Little Jr.’s loved ones can finally have some level of closure. Rest on Frank.

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Walter Williams, one of the founders of The O’Jays, is pushing 76 years of age. However, he’s still making his way to the stage for the following reason.

You know when music is in your bones, it’s down to the marrow. Yet, sometimes, you just don’t feel up to it.

As you know, a few years ago, Walter let the public know about his fight with multiple sclerosis. It’s no easy feat to get up there on stage at his age, especially while dealing with those complications.

Actually, according to Miami Herald, the group is possibly on its last tour right now. “After 61 years, 15 gold and platinum records and a 2005 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the O’Jays are calling it quits,” the source mentions.

Nevertheless…

Walter Williams presses forward with the group. In an interview with DJ Kut, the legendary singer momentarily touches on the topic.

The Reason Walter Williams Still Gets On The Stage>>>

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Unfortunately, Donald Trump has just added The O’Jays to his growing list of singers who are highly pissed with him and this time it looks like Trump done messed with the WRONG ones! The O’Jays did not keep it politically correct (like some of the other artists have) in the statement they’ve just released to blast Trump for his “divisive” political message and also for yet again, the RNC’s blatant unauthorized usage of another song…The O’Jays’ “Love Train.”

Well Eddie Levert and Walter Williams, made it known to Trump and the world, that they’re not parking their “Love Train” nowhere near Trump and do NOT appreciate him, nor the RNC, for jackin’ it:

Via Billboard: In a statement to press, the legendary vocal group’s founding members Eddie Levert and Walter Williams decried the different versions of the song that have been used in Trump’s campaign and this week’s GOP Convention in Cleveland, including one reworking as “Trump Train.”

“Our music, and most especially, ‘Love Train’ is about bringing people together, not building walls.” said Williams in a statement. “I don’t appreciate being associated with Mr. Trump and his usage of our music without permission.”

The O’Jays were formed just an hour’s drive from the convention in Canton, Ohio, and according to a press release “flatly rejected” an offer to perform at the event “in light of their personal beliefs that the candidacy of Trump is divisive and at odds with the overriding message of their song.”

Levert added, “I don’t agree, whatsoever, with Trump’s politics to the point where I think he just may be the anti-Christ.”

Wow, the O’Jays sure did speak their minds, didn’t they?

Why doesn’t the RNC just get permission from music artists who actually approve of Trump’s political messages?

So far they’ve been jackin’ the wrong ones- the rock group, Queen; Adele; EW&F; even the widow and family of the late Italian opera singer, Luciano Pavarotti, released an angry statement after the RNC stole their music and said ‘the “values of brotherhood and solidarity” that Pavarotti expressed in his career “are incompatible with the world vision proposed” by Trump.’

Outside of country music, it’s probably difficult for the RNC to find many artists of various genres who would approve their music for this year’s RNC, because even though there are some artists of other genres who are Trump supporters, they know that publicly throwing their support behind him, could possibly be career suicide.

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[kkgallery kid=”2037″ title=”Whaaat? Gerald & Sean Levert Have A Big BROTHER Most Never Knew About!”]

 
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Eddie has a total of seven kids, including his beloved sons- the late Gerald and Sean Levert, but many folks didn’t know Eddie had any other kids, other than Sean and Gerald.

Well among his remaining five children, there is some drama that he says goes do between he and them sometimes, but first the good news- The good news is that Eddie has a new CD coming out in the beginning of 2016 titled,“Did I Make You Go Ooh”out and he also recorded a song with his youngest child, Ryan, for his CD. The down side is that Eddie admitted that every time he works with one of his kids, there’s always some type of tension that gets stirred up in the family as a result. Here is what he told Black America Web about this:

“If you don’t include everybody in the family, you get a lot of flack from these people. Everybody thinks they deserve to get paid, too, ” Eddie says. “You have all these people involved in their lives and Gerald’s lives and in his estate, you’ve got to clear everything so his kids can get paid for it. I’ve been catching heck. My daughter stopped speaking to me because I did the play, but her mom OK’ed the play so I thought it was OK to do it. Now they want to hang me. You know, B.B. King’s kids, James Brown’s kids, it just goes on and on.”

Eddie says, there’s a new generation of Levert performers. Eddie’s youngest daughter, now 13, is singing and performing as well.

“She’s preparing herself now. Her mom is doing everything she can to keep her down. She’s got the whole thing. She’s got whole attitude and the expressions and all of that. I just did a new CD, and we did a song called “Stupid People.” That’s her title. Me and her wrote it and I put it on my CD. We’re talking about how people are running around shooting each other and doing all these crazy things.”

It’s just like the old school saying goes: ‘The more money you get, the more problems you have,’ but I’m sure the tension will settle down soon between Eddie and his children. After losing two close loved ones, Sean and Gerald, they all probably understand just how short and unpredictable life is, plus the Levert fam’ seems like a pretty tight knit unit who loves Eddie to the core and vice versa. So hopefully it’ll only be a matter of time before they’re hugging and loving each other again at a family get-together, while The O’Jays’ “Family Reunion” plays in the background.

Take us out O’Jays…

The post Wow Eddie Levert Has a 13 Yr Old Daughter? See Why Family Gets Mad w/Him appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

The O’Jays have definitely had a great deal of heartache and challenges they’ve had to fight through over the decades and the health battle O’Jays singer, Walter Williams, has had to fight has been a long, painful one that he kept quiet for several decades. Here’s what was reported via Cleveland.com:

It started with a numb big toe. Walter Williams was driving back from an O’Jays gig in Buffalo, N.Y., when he felt the strange sensation. The hit-making R&B group had just gotten new stage outfits, so he figured maybe his new shoes were too tight. But the numbness soon spread from his toe to his entire foot to his leg, in the middle of an O’Jays tour.

“I probably stopped in every hospital in every city, trying to find out what was going on,” Williams said.

A doctor in Los Angeles determined that Williams had multiple sclerosis. The diagnosis was confirmed at the Cleveland Clinic.

“My family was devastated,” Williams said during an interview last week at a local hotel. He got the bad news in 1983, just before his 40th birthday. Now, nearly three decades later, this Rock and Roll Hall of Famer from Shaker Heights is talking publicly for the first time about his struggle with MS, the inflammatory autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system. (Williams is a paid spokesman for Biogen Idec, a biotechnology company that manufactures the MS drug Avonex, which he takes.)

“I moped around the house for three or four weeks, really afraid, not knowing what was going to happen to me,” said Williams, 66.

“Then I got pissed. . . . I started exercising, lifting weights to tone up and make my body stronger, trying to eat better. I said, ‘OK — if you’re gonna get me, you’re gonna get me fighting back.’ “

As a boy, Williams sang alongside Eddie Levert at St. Mark Baptist Church in Canton, where Williams’ father was the choir director.

MS made it exceedingly difficult for Williams to keep up with the group’s demanding tour schedule and intricate onstage choreography, yet he soldiered on.

“We do a lot of turns and spins, stuff like that, and it was a constant effort not to lose my balance,” he said. When the disease was at its worst, Williams felt numb from the waist down.

Embed from Getty Images

“When I touched my legs, it felt like I was touching this,” he said, reaching out to pound on a small table with a stone top. “It’s just felt awful. . . . It would come and it would stay a year or two, then it would go away. That was the weirdest thing to me. I always thought it was something I was doing that made it go away, or made it come back. This went on for years. I found out later that I had nothing to do with it — it’s just one of the characteristics of MS.”

Williams began taking Avonex 12 years ago. He credits his weekly shot of the drug for helping to hold the disease at bay.

“Other than the side effects — flu-like symptoms that go away after maybe 10 hours — it’s fine,” he said. “I’m able to do whatever I want to do. When we’re performing, I can do high-energy as well as Eddie or Eric [Grant] can. I play golf every day, too, when the weather is nice.

“I’m good.”

[Source]

Walter Williams courageously did what many people are often put in the position everyday to do- risk their well being for the well being of not only themselves, but their family. He had a family , group members, band members, agents, managers, etc. who all depended on him to play his position as a vital member of the group. As a result the reward is oftentimes greater than the risks. We’re glad to see Walter living life to the fullest now.

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