Katrina: Fats Domino rescued

2005-09-02 22:16

New Orleans - Fats Domino, who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and whose manager had reported him missing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, has been rescued by boat from his flooded home.

The rescue was caught on film by a photographer from the New Orleans Times-Picayune on Thursday.

The picture, taken late on Monday after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, showed the 1950s and '60s-era musician - known for hits like Ain't That a Shame and Blueberry Hill - being helped off a boat near his three-storey home in one of the most-heavily flooded sections of the city.

He was believed to have been taken to New Orleans's Superdome Stadium, where refugees became stranded, with no way of contacting relatives.

Daughter praying for dad

His daughter, Karen Domino White, who lived in New Jersey, United States, told CNN she recognised her father in the picture.

She said: "I didn't have any information. I was just praying", adding that she had not heard from her father since August 23, four days before the hurricane struck.

Fats Domino's agent, Al Embry, had expressed concern about the 77-year-old musician's whereabouts, saying he and his wife, Rosemary, had refused to leave their home in the centre of New Orleans, an area inundated by up to six metres of floodwater.

CNN reported that friends of Fats Domino said they did not know where he went after his rescue, nor did they have any information about his wife.

Musical influences

Domino was born in Antoine Dominique Domino in New Orleans in 1928.

He earned the nickname "Fats" in part from a song he wrote, The Fat Man, and from one of his main musical influences, 1930s stride pianist Fats Waller.

He rocketed to rock-and-roll fame in 1955 with the hit Ain't That A Shame, underpinned by his characteristic New Orleans-style piano playing.

According to biographers, together with Blue Monday and Blueberry Hill, Domino put out more than 30 hit records in a row, becoming one of the 1950s' top-selling musicians.

He later became one of the first to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

- AFP