Veteran Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins remains a fierce performer

The Post and Courier
By: Sydney Smith

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins is a black woman who has been active in the blues world since the '50s. Because of that, she has stories to share through her music.

Drop her name in conversation with Charleston blues artists and fans and you'll hear two things: She rocks, and she's lived the blues.

"She's from another era," Blues Bash organizer Gary Erwin said. "She is cool."

"She kicks butt," Juke Joint Johnny said. "She's engaging. She's entertaining, she was born with an umbilical cord to American blues."

Beverly turns 70 this year. She's opened for Ray Charles, James Brown and Aretha Franklin. She's survived lung cancer and a minor heart attack.

But nothing has stopped her yet, and she has no intentions of slowing down. She knows she'll surprise and entertain you with her performance.

The State reports: Neb.'s Sen. Johanns undergoing surgery

The office of Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns says the senator is having surgery on his left lung following the discovery of a spot.

The State reports: Morris: Vols assistant tackles a bigger opponent

When IRMO HIGH’S Brooks Savage took off for Tennessee five years ago, he set his sights on one day being a college basketball coach. Little did Savage know he would also become a fundraiser for cancer research.

The State reports: Is my chemo working? Scans may give faster answer

When Mike Stevens learned his lungs were riddled with cancer, it took only a week to start chemotherapy - but six weeks to find out if it was doing any good. "You're going through all this suffering and stuff and you want to know, am I going to survive? Is this stuff working?" said Stevens, 48, of La Jolla, Calif. "Your whole life is in sort of a limbo."

Doctors typically must wait weeks or months to see if a treatment is shrinking tumors or at least halting their growth. But researchers are exploring a new use for medical imaging that could shorten the stay in purgatory, possibly revealing within a few days whether chemo is working.

The New York Times: Alan Landers, Winston Man, Dies at 68

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: March 3, 2009

Alan Landers, who started smoking at 9 and became a model for advertisements of Winston cigarettes and Tiparillo cigars, then contracted lung cancer and became a highly visible crusader against smoking, died Friday at his home in Lauderhill, Fla. He was 68.

Robin Levine Carns, a niece, said the cause was complications of treatment for cancer of the larynx, which Mr. Landers attributed to smoking, as he did his two lung cancers and heart disease.