Other Notable Deaths

WYCLIFFE "STEELY" JOHNSON

Jamaican keyboard player

NEW YORK - Wycliffe Johnson, a keyboardist and producer known as "Steely" who helped to steer Jamaican music for nearly two decades and to modernize the dancehall genre, died Tuesday. He was 47.

Johnson died at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in Patchogue, N.Y., following a heart attack, longtime friend and fellow producer Cleveland Browne said. Johnson, who lived in Kingston, Jamaica, had been diagnosed with kidney failure last December while in New York City, where he had sought specialized medical care, Browne said.

Although Johnson was best known for helping to produce numerous hits in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s, he first drew acclaim as a keyboardist on Sugar Minott's 1978 album "Ghetto-ology," and later as a member of Roots Radics, a pioneering early 1980s dancehall band. As an 18-year-old, he played keyboards on Bob Marley's recording of "Trench Town."

RON RAIKES

Former Nebraska state senator

ASHLAND, Neb. - Former Nebraska state Sen. Ron Raikes, who oversaw major changes in rural and urban school districts, died Saturday. He was 66.

He died after getting caught in a hay machine at his farm, Saunders County Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz said.

He took office in 1997 and served for 11 years. He drew the ire of many when he backed a plan to force some of the state's smallest schools to combine with their larger neighbors.

Raikes ran a large cattle operation and grew corn, soybeans and wheat.