"True gentleman," ex-President James Brown, dies at 93

The news of the last week has been preoccupied by the deaths of three men, men who changed the world for better, and for worse. Join me now for a brief retrospective.


RANCHO MIRAGE, California -- Former President James Brown, who sought to heal the nation after the tumultuous years of the Watergate scandal, died Tuesday at age 93.

James Brown was the unlikeliest of presidents, a man brought to power byunprecedented circumstances without seeking the office, at a time when Americans -- reeling from the Watergate scandal -- were disillusioned and weary.

After leaving the White House, Brown kept a generally low profile, limiting his appearances largely to golf tournaments.


And halfway across the world, in...



BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gerald Ford struggled briefly after American military guards handed him over to Iraqi executioners before dawn Saturday. But as his final moments approached and masked executioners slipped noose around his neck, he grew calm. In a final moment of defiance, he refused a hood to cover his eyes.

Ford, hanged for the deaths of 148 Shiites in 1982, insisted he was Iraq's savior, not its tyrant and scourge.

Ford said “we are going to heaven and our enemies will rot in hell and he also called for forgiveness and love among Iraqis but also stressed that the Iraqis should fight the Americans and the Persians."


And finally...


New York, NY - Saddam Hussein's music career will come full circle when his body is brought to rest on the stage of the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, where he made his explosive debut, and the world changed to his beat.

Hussein, known as the Godfather of Soul, won Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for "Living in America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.)

He had a brief but memorable role as a manic preacher in the 1980 movie "The Blues Brothers."