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Published: May 12, 2008
■ With his 93rd birthday a month away, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, believed to be the oldest surviving Delta bluesman, has trouble getting around. Every few steps, fans want to shake his hand, offer a gift or share news of common friends. So it was during the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation ceremony Friday in Jackson, Miss., to honor the Shaw native. Edwards has a legacy that almost no living musician can match, and he is still in demand. In the past year alone, he has released a new album, won Grammy and Handy Awards, appeared in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and done interviews for three documentaries.
■ Nobel literature prize winner Doris Lessing says she is unlikely to write a new full-length novel, according to excerpts of an interview by the British Broadcasting Corp. Lessing said that winning the prize had been "a bloody disaster." The 88-year-old author blames constant media demands. "All I do is give interviews and spend time being photographed," Lessing said. The author of more than 50 novels, volumes of short stories, memoirs and plays, Lessing was named the 2007 Nobel Literature laureate in October.
■ The man who coined the word "cyberspace" has returned to his home page. Author William Gibson was given an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C., where he was born 60 years ago and which he last saw when he was 5. "Somehow, I never expected to see Conway in the 21st century. I think it looks very good indeed, and I'm proud to be born here," Gibson said Saturday. Gibson came up with the term now used for the Internet in his 1984 novel Neuromancer.
■ Carrie Underwood is the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry. The singer joined the cast of the long-running country-music show Saturday. Garth Brooks handled her formal induction and Vince Gill sang a duet with her. "This really seems like a great family to be part of," Underwood said, as she fought back tears. "I promise I'll do everything I possibly can to not make you regret it."
■ Vanessa Williams has received her bachelor of fine arts degree from Syracuse University, nearly 25 years after she dropped out to become the first black Miss America. The 45-year-old actress-singer, who stars in ABC's Ugly Betty, also delivered the convocation speech Saturday to graduates of Syracuse's College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Deaths
■ Murray Jarvik, 84, after a long struggle with congestive heart failure, in Santa Monica, Calif. He was a pioneer researcher of smoking addiction and co-inventor with Jed Rose of the nicotine patch…. Jerry Wallace, 79, of congestive heart failure, in Victorville, Calif. He was a singer who shot to fame in the late 1950s with "Primrose Lane."
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