Temptations singer dies at 62

Otis “Damon” Harris, who as first tenor of the Motown ensemble The Temptations sang on such 1970s hits as Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, has died at the age of 62, US news media reported on Monday.

By (AFP)

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Published: Wed 27 Feb 2013, 8:46 PM

Last updated: Fri 3 Apr 2015, 3:21 AM

Prostate cancer was the cause of death, a family spokesman told the Sun newspaper in Harris’s hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.

Harris (pictured second right with the band in 2001) joined The Temptations in 1971 when he was 21 and the group was looking for a new tenor. He stayed on for four years, during which time it won four Grammy awards — including three for Papa.

He took the stage name Damon to avoid confusion with Otis Williams, who to this day remains leader of the chart-topping group and its only surviving founding member.

Later in life Harris devoted himself to the fight against cancer, establishing his own non-profit foundation to raise awareness of the illness among African-American men even as he battled it himself.



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