Wednesday Reads

 Good again on Arkansas to do right by women and girls and their sports.

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Can retired senator Joe Lieberman help the Democrats on the D.C. statehood issue?

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Obituary:  Famed burlesque star Tempest Storm, 93, born Annie Blanche Banks, died yesterday.  She suffered from a variety of ailments, including hip issues and dementia.

Storm was famously a “leap day” baby, born Annie Blanche Banks on Feb. 29, 1928, in Eastman, Georgia. She was the daughter of a sharecropper, leaving school in seventh grade and working as a waitress. At age 14, she married a member of the Marines to escape from her abusive parents. The marriage was annulled after 24 hours. At age 15, she married a shoe salesman and, after six months, left to pursue a career in Hollywood.

She was working as a cocktail waitress when a customer told her she’d make a great strip-tease performer. In 1951, Storm landed an audition with Follies Theater talent manager Lillian Hunt. Within a month she’d upped her pay from $40 to $60 per week, and Hunt said the new performer needed a stage name. Offered a choice between Sunny Day and Tempest Storm, the entertainment icon said, “Well, I said, I guess it might as well be Tempest Storm.” She legally changed her name six years later. _____

Another obit:  Mike Mitchell, not a household name, but he is remembered for his guitar work in the legendary recording, "Louie, Louie," has died at the age of 77.

Mitchell was one of the founding members of the Kingsmen in 1957, when he was still a teen. The group found their greatest success with their 1963 cover of “Louie Louie.” Recorded in a single take, which the band thought was a practice run, the song is sloppy and all but unintelligible, and therein lies its charm. It rose to No. 2 on the Billboard chart and became highly influential on rock music even as it was investigated by the FBI for pornographic content. Banned in Indiana and on various radio stations across the U.S., the song turned out to have innocuous lyrics that were simply easy to misinterpret. Mitchell remained with the Kingsmen as other members left, recording minor follow-up hits including their 1964 cover of “Money (That’s What I Want)” as well as “The Jolly Green Giant” (1965) and “Killer Joe” (1966). By 1967, Mitchell was the only founding member of the Kingsmen still in the band, and he continued to tour and play with the Kingsmen until his death.