Medal of Freedom for BB King
2006-12-08 14:40
New York - Bluesman B.B. King, who picked cotton before picking up a guitar, and John "Buck" O'Neil, the grandson of a slave who became Major League Baseball's first black coach, are among this year's Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, the White House said on Thursday.
President George Bush also named historian and author David McCullough and ex-Soviet dissident and human rights activist Natan Sharansky for America's highest civilian honour.
"For more than half a century, the 'King of the Blues' and his guitar 'Lucille' have thrilled audiences, influenced generations of guitarists, and helped give the blues its special place in the American musical tradition," Bush said of Riley "B.B." King in his proclamation.
King, whose "60th Anniversary Tour" kicks off in January, launched his professional career in 1947, leaving the Mississippi Delta where he worked on a plantation and heading for Memphis. Last April, at his eponymous club in New York,
King played his 10 000th concert.
"It's been a long journey, but I've enjoyed every minute of it, bringing the blues to so many enthusiastic audiences around the world," said the 81-year-old musician.
O'Neil, who died in October at the age of 94, was a player and manager in the Negro Leagues before becoming Major League Baseball's first African-American coach, when he joined the coaching staff of the Chicago Cubs in 1962.
When he died, Bush, a former owner of baseball's Texas Rangers, said O'Neil "represented the best of America's national pastime.
"He devoted his long and full life to baseball, and refused to allow injustice and discrimination to diminish his love of the game and his joyous, generous spirit."
McCullough is one of America's most distinguished historians. "His books have earned him the respect of general audiences and scholars alike, and he is one of our foremost experts on the American presidency," Bush's proclamation said.
Sharansky, a Russian Jew, was imprisoned in the former Soviet Union for his work to advance religious liberty and human rights. "He remained steadfast in his defiance of tyranny and has continued to champion the principles that all people deserve to live in freedom and that the advance of liberty is critical to peace and security around the world," the White House said of the former Israeli cabinet minister.
Also receiving the Medal of Freedom are: literacy advocate Ruth Johnson Colvin; Norman Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana; British historian and journalist Paul Johnson; Joshua Lederberg, a Nobel Prize winner for his work in bacterial genetics; former transportation secretary Norman Mineta; and William Safire, a former New York Times columnist.
The recipients will be honoured at the White House on December 15.