PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
1 of B.B. King’s ‘Lucille’ guitars sells for $280K at auction
A guitar given to B.B. King for his 80th birthday has sold for $280,000 at an auction of items from the blues legend’s estate.
Julien’s Auctions says King often used the black Gibson ES-345 prototype that was one of several guitars he called “Lucille.” A spokeswoman for the auction house, Mozell Miley-bailey, says the buyer wants to remain anonymous.
Before the auction, Julien’s estimated the guitar’s value at $80,000 to $100,000. The headstock has “B.B. King 80” and a crown inlaid with mother-ofpearl, and the guitar is autographed on the back.
Early in his career, King ran back into a burning nightclub to rescue his guitar, and he later learned the fire started when two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. King said he never met the woman but started naming his guitars Lucille as a reminder to never again endanger his own life.
Kanye West attracts thousands to Wyoming for worship service
Kanye West has held an outdoor worship service that attracted thousands of people to the Wyoming city where he owns a ranch.
The Billings Gazette reports West held the free event Sunday on the grounds of The Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody.
The center estimates 3,800 people attended the hourlong “Sunday Service” in the Robbie Powwow Garden. An official says the center was contacted about renting the facility only two days earlier.
West performed with a choir of 80 singers flown from California to Wyoming on Sunday morning.
Hillary Clinton among readers at Mary Oliver tribute
The words were by Mary Oliver, the emotions were those of Hillary Clinton and others who came to pay tribute.
The former secretary of state and presidential candidate was among the readers Monday night honoring the beloved, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, who died in January at age 83. Speaking before hundreds at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y, Clinton and such friends of Oliver as Maria Shriver and filmmaker John Waters praised the poet’s nonconforming spirit and profound bond with the natural world.
Only a recording of Oliver herself reading her classic “Wild Geese” received the kind of applause – a soaring standing ovation – that Clinton did on Monday.