
Rest In Peace To A Legend And Icon LADY ETTA JAMES
Let me tell you how I listen to Lady Etta… Vinyl is the number one choice. If I don’t have my ‘Vinyl Fix’, then my CD of Etta’s Greatest Hits will have to do. Cliche’ as it may truly sound THE MUSIC STOPPED TODAY. It is a respectful term to someone who has impacted the genre of music and Etta James did just that. Etta will be missed by many.
Jamesetta Hawkins was born 1938 in Los Angeles California. Etta James was a woman who lived her truths, no apologies. Starting her career in the 1950′s, Lady Etta James garners six Grammy’s, Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Blues Hall of Fame and Grammy Award Hall of Fame twice over. Many will look forward to seeing The Grammy’s give another honor to one of the best that ever did it, Lady Etta.
Sometimes controversy and complications of one’s life wears a Crown of Completion. A completion of a life lived in the realest since where history says, “It is where one has been but importantly where one has ended.” Triumphs over excess and odds is what Etta did. There is no ‘Tidy Tale’ to tell but ‘Truths of Living’ from Etta James life. In the music Etta recorded and performed fans, admirer’s, critics felt the very essence of the words. Etta was a song stylist, easy to say but not easy to do.
Many will be playing Etta James vast music catalog this day, to days, to weeks, to months, to years to come. Those like myself where tears fall, let those tears turn to joy for Lady Etta James. She has flown away to that Sunday Kind of Love, where there’s no more heartache and no more pain. She sings befittingly for the highest of highs no President could hold a candle to. The Love she has now is everlasting and eternal.
Nostalgic… quite so just as the music of Etta, Nostalgic and Relevant.

Etta James, she was amazing, phenomenal, iconic and her songs resonated to the hearts of those who ever loved with reckless abandon and other ways without pretense. No one can ever sing Etta songs like she can a beautiful fact. Thank you Etta for the music through many of our moments of love, pain, laughter and all the rest in between. My vinyl plays Etta, The Essence of Etta.
REST IN PEACE LADY ETTA!
Condolences to the family of Etta James.
1021Online will design tribute feature to Etta James as the newest addition of Legends to our Exclusive Feature ESSENCE OF MOI. More details to come. Bebe Davis, Publisher

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO AT THE END OF A LOVE AFFAIR…
Continue Living and Loving.... TGIF!

Many people on the social networking sites and blogs are going IN ( understatement ) on the news of The Bryant’s divorce. The alleged divorce settlement amount to the tune of 75 million awarded to Vanessa Bryant soon-to-be former wife of NBA Laker’s Superstar Kobe Bryant has people feeling some kind of way. Divorce is never easy, especially with children involved. The Bryants have two daughters and a decade of memories. To the outside world many feel the amount allegedly given to Vanessa is not deserved. Not many are taking into account the children and the LIFESTYLE they are accustomed to being in.
Though it may sound incredulous to some, this is pretty normal for those who have ‘wealth’ of this magnitude. When you take into account Kobe Bryant’s position at the time of marrying Vanessa at a young age, Kobe was a ‘sure thing’ to be a wealthy man in the long term as long as he stayed healthy. Kobe chose not to have a Pre-Nup be a part of his marriage. While many may judge, it was his choice. Take into the accounts of vicious remarks online about Vanessa, about Kobe, even Drake with all his issues of putting it on the line with women ‘crush style’ giving his two cents on a verse from ‘Stay Scheming about the Bryants – yea Divorce they have no idea how deep it is.

Divorce details were worked out according to sources before the divorce went public. With all the bickering we see from others in the past and present going through divorces for alleged infidelity ‘The Bryant’s managed to handle things out of the public eye. The only ‘Juicy’ details are coming from people’s opinions right now. Unless either comes forward, it’s been a classy ending to what is a painful reality. For whatever anyone feels the need to go in on both Kobe and Vanessa, it is the hope the children come out okay through all of this.
No one really knows the true NET WORTH of someone if they play it smart. Sometimes all of your assets may not be known. Cheers some say to the one who has this kind of fortitude to make it happen. This could be the case of Kobe Bryant. If it is, he wouldn’t be the first of Powerful Men to accomplish such scenario. I’ve known women who kept assets ‘safe’ within decades of their marriage. Once the marriage ended, they were in classic fashion ‘Sitting Pretty’.
True story: A cousin of mine lived in California with her husband. She was an older cousin 50 years old about twenty-five years ago, I was a teenager at the time. During a visit home to the South to spend time with her aunt who at the time was 80 we all were taking in the Summer Southern sun on a Summer evening talking about many things. My cousin spoke on her recent divorce. Married for 30 years, her husband was a controlling man. He didn’t like for her to take trips to Philadelphia to see her own mother too long, calling constantly even when she would go grocery shopping. Always asking how much she loved him, even jealous of the time she spent with their children and grandchildren. He took his actions as as love, she took it as smothering. Their issues were all mental torment, not physical which is no lesser disturbing.
With their children grown, having grand-children, home paid for, cars paid for it was time to make a move. Before divorcing him, my cousin acquired her own wealth through various sources. In California it was not against the law to take half out of your accounts before divorce. My cousin took half of the Gold Bonds they acquired over decades, half out of two of several banking accounts they shared and both contributed to. Making her way to Philly every year to see her mother, that year divorce papers were served to her husband while she was on the east coast.
Extending her trip on the advice of her lawyers, not required to be in court as the divorce became final, my cousin headed South to her aunt. She stayed on the east coast for four months as she made preparations to start a new life. According to my cousin at the time all that should took really would not set him back. She wanted no alimony just enough of what they acquired together to continue to live in the lifestyle she was accustomed to.
I do have a feeling Kobe will be ‘Sitting Handsomely’ unbeknownst to any of us. I have no doubt he did not secure enough to be comfortable and do the right thing by his daughters and Vanessa. Wealth, depending on who you are, 75 million may be a breeze. Let no stone go upturned, and I will leave it at that.Vanessa could now venture out to find herself even more. She married young, basically within the realms of Kobe Bryant’s world, wife, mother. This is a great moment on the ‘Sunny Side of things’ to venture into business for herself, charity work and more. For Kobe this is a time to reflect and find himself more. Though people don’t want to face it, a divorce is not the end of your life. When you can remain amicable this speaks volumes on your character.
you’ve been deja vu’d,
BEBE
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