Happy Birthday to Charles "Sonny" Liston !

[Caractacus]

Born this day (allegedly) on May 8th 1932.
At Forrest City Arkansas,which is near the Mississippi River.

[Caractacus]

actually Sonny Liston wasn't born in Forrest City as widely reported in the press when he won the HW Championship.
He was born at "Sand Slough" on the SW portion of the Moreledge Plantation which is closer to Wynn Arkansas
in Cross County AR.
and according to his mother ,he was born in a cypress-board shack there.

[Caractacus]

And in tribute,here was one of his favorite recording artist.Ray Charles

[DrDuke]

The police told, he had been born in the late 20s, but no certainty there. May 8th 1932 was a fabricated date for his boxing career files and issues.

[Caractacus]

and Bo Diddley too !

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

[SenorPipino]

What Caractacus?

No Night Train??????

[Caractacus]

Hey Man,I was going to get around to posting it.I can't make all the posts on this thread at one time.Gotta space them in-between over course of the day.

[SenorPipino]

Hey Man,I was going to get around to posting it.I can't make all the posts on this thread at one time.Gotta space them in-between over course of the day.

Hey Man,I was going to get around to posting it.I can't make all the posts on this thread at one time.Gotta space them in-between over course of the day.

Thank you.

"Night Train" WAS Sonny Liston.

[Caractacus]

[Kalan]

Here is the Ballad of Sonny Liston by Mark Knopfler... A beautiful song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DMLnoyk6R0

At a celebration of Sonny Liston’s life the Supremes did a wonderful adaptation of “SUNNY” ... It was an beautiful and unforgettable song that made Liston’s wife Geraldine cry and smile broadly at the same time... . Especially as the famed trio belted out the words “Sonny one so tru-uuuue… We love you-ouuuu” It was an unforgettable performance... Too bad their adaptation of "Sunny" can't be found on the Internet and is possibly lost.

[Caractacus]

Sonny Liston also recorded a 45 demo record back in 1970 in Las Vegas.
It was a song called" Im a Lover Man" or something like that.
about 8 years ago,someone found a rare copy of it in a sleeve
of a Olivia Newton John album that they purchased at a yard sale.
They offered it for sale at the cyberboxing zone site and even included a small audio sample to prove it,
but shortly afterwards,someone hacked the web site and all the info was lost including that link.

[gilgamesh]

She went down swingin'
Like Sonny Liston

[Chuck1052]

Most likely, Sonny Liston was born during the early 1930s. After all, he is not listed in the 1930 U.S. Census even though his father, mother and a number of siblings are.

- Chuck Johnston

[Kalan]

Most likely, Sonny Liston was born during the early 1930s. After all, he is not listed in the 1930 U.S. Census even though his father, mother and a number of siblings are.

Many people are missed by census takers... They don't get around to everyone, especially minorities in rural areas... In some areas they even went by the last census and did statistical "adjustments."

Time Warner

Even the 2010 census, missed about 2.1 percent of black Americans and 1.5 percent of Hispanics, together accounting for some 1.5 million people. The percentages are statistically comparable to 2000, despite an aggressive advertising and minority outreach effort in 2010 that pushed total census costs to an unprecedented $15 billion.

Liston was listed in the 1940 Census as 10, so he may have been born in 1930... However he looked much older than that... Many believe his age was adjusted to get ahead of proposed regulations that threatened to rescind boxing licenses on account of aging... Some of those age related regulations were enacted, but quickly quashed.

[Chuck1052]

I am well aware that the census takers misses a lot of people, notably those in the minority groups. But my point is that other members of Sonny Liston's family were in the 1930 U.S. Census, but not Sonny himself. Another interesting note is that Sonny's brother, Curtis, was only six months old when the census taker came to the Liston home on April 8, 1930. If such information is true, Curtis was born in September or October 1929. If Sonny was younger than Curtis with both having the same mother. it is very unlikely that Sonny was born earlier than June 1930.

- Chuck Johnston

[Chuck1052]

I found a copy of Curtis Liston's Indiana death certificate in digital form on Ancestry.com. According to the certificate, Curtis was born on October 15, 1929 in Arkansas. He died in the Gary Mercy Hospital in Gary, Indiana on November 28, 1982. He was a black and was unemployed at the time of his death. His wife was Emma Lee Bennett (I assume that was her maiden name)., who was listed as the source of personal information about Curtis. Tobie Liston and Helen Baskin (probably her maiden name) were listed as Curtis's parents.

- Chuck Johnston

[Kalan]

A hard life can sometimes age a person well beyond their years...

It could be that Liston was 40 when he died, but he looked well over 50... And he looked 40 when he faced Ali... Maybe the rumors that Liston was much older than he claimed to be came mostly from his physical appearance.

[oogiebe]

A hard life can sometimes age a person well beyond their years...

It could be that Liston was 40 when he died, but he looked well over 50... And he looked 40 when he faced Ali... Maybe the rumors that Liston was much older than he claimed to be came mostly from his physical appearance.

that's actually an interesting point. He did have an arduous life. He may have been much older, unfortunately, we'll never know. RIP champ!

[Caractacus]

The Ink Spots sang "Sunny" at his funeral January.9.1971.

[Caractacus]

Sonny Liston also recorded a 45 demo record back in 1970 in Las Vegas.
It was a song called" Im a Lover Man" or something like that.
about 8 years ago,someone found a rare copy of it in a sleeve
of a Olivia Newton John album that they purchased at a yard sale.
They offered it for sale at the cyberboxing zone site and even included a small audio sample to prove it,
but shortly afterwards,someone hacked the web site and all the info was lost including that link.

Lem Banker also said in a interview that Sonny Liston gave him a personal copy of this record for Christmas 1970.
(Banker gave Sonny an expensive watch). Maybe it was Lem Banker who wanted to sell that recording so it could be preserved for the future ?check out this recent interiew(2017) with him
http://www.thesweetscience.com/feature- ... shback-lem

[Kalan]

The Ink Spots sang "Sunny" at his funeral January.9.1971.

I wish we could find a recording of their rendition.... It's like Liston was so unimportant to so many people

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

Sonny Liston was even invited to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show (which was aired live) to jump rope on October.6.1963
to Night Train.(James Brown released the 45 rpm single of Night Train in 1962,the year Liston became HW Champion).