Art Lassiter, Charismatic Singer

His whole life, Art Lassiter thought he would make it big, like Ray Charles. He believed he would move beyond nightclubs, strike platinum with R&B records, become a household name.

The big, charismatic singer - who died Thursday (Aug. 4) of throat cancer at age 64 - surely looked and dressed the part, said family and friends.

Mr. Lassiter had the rich, sweet voice. He had the cool threads. And he definitely had paid the dues - in clubs from New Jersey to New Zealand, Chicago to St. Louis.

He even had a regional hit record, "It's All Right," in the 1950s, when he often sang with Ike Turner.

"And he always showed up at gigs, no matter what they were," said music writer and friend Steven Spickard.

"He never did make it big: He didn't know how to market himself. But he never let go of that dream."

Born to sharecroppers during a snowstorm in North Carolina cotton fields, Mr. Lassiter spent his first moments swaddled in cotton. As he grew, his uncles let the boy join their gospel group. But at 14 he left home to be with his mother, who went to New Jersey to work.

Mr. Lassiter formed his own singing group and sang in officers clubs in the Far East, when he was in the Army during the Korean War. Mr. Lassiter also boxed during these years under the name Artie Wilkins - his mother had married a Wilkins.

Out of the service, Mr. Lassiter and his buddies took off across the U.S. in a car. It broke down in St. Louis. He sang in an amateur night at a club and was booked on the spot.

Ike Turner spotted Mr. Lassiter and gave him work, off and on with his Rhythm Revue. Mr. Lassiter came to know Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, Albert Cook and other R&B greats.

Work in California, New Zealand and Canada followed. Mr. Lassiter finally settled in Washington state in 1984 with his last wife, Ruth Lindgren Lassiter of Seattle.

"He was charismatic," she said, "and a good cook - barbecue and Southern soul food. He and a partner had owned a club in Hawaii, where he sang and did the cooking."

Mr. Lassiter's cousin Florence Kennedy of Tacoma said Mr. Lassiter would go home to the family in New Jersey after long absences and be welcomed back like royalty. "The red carpet would be spread, the table laid out," she said. "Then he would tell us jokes and stories of places he'd been. He was the most wonderful storyteller.

"Sometimes we'd get into three or four cars and drive 50 miles to a joint where he had a weekend gig and dance the night away."

Spickard praised his talent: "He lived for the stage. That's where he was most alive. He was a master of four-part harmony . . . and picked really beautiful songs.

"But in conversation he had a lot of interesting viewpoints, and they were his own viewpoints. He truly was a dreamer."

Other survivors include his youngest daughters, Miriam and Linnea Lassiter of Seattle; his former wife, Thelma Lassiter of Seattle, and their children, Loletha Kilgore of New Jersey and Christine Bleakney, Arthur Lassiter Jr. and Lydia Lassiter, all of Seattle; his brothers, George Wilkins and Floyd Wilkins, and his sister, Rashida Ali, all living on the East Coast.

Services have been held.