Ellington had died the previous May.

When Mercer died, Paul Ellington kept the Duke Ellington Orchestra going.

Among the notables who died either without a valid will or no will at all are Ross Alexander, Fatty Arbuckle, Anura Bandaranaike, Madhav Prasad Birla, Sonny Bono, George Brent, Lenny Bruce, Jacob A. Cantor, Kurt Cobain, Russ Columbo, Sam Cooke, James Dean, Sandy Dennis, John Denver, Divine, Duke Ellington, Cass Elliot, Chris Farley, Bobby Fischer, Redd Foxx, Mary Frann, James A. Garfield, Marvin Gaye, Ulysses S. Grant, Billie Holiday, Buddy Holly, Shemp Howard, Howard Hughes, Andrew Johnson, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ernie Kovacs, Harry Langdon, Bruce Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Peter Lorre, Jayne Mansfield, Rocky Marciano, Karl Marx, Steve McNair, Sal Mineo, Carmen Miranda, Keith Moon, Rosa Parks, Pablo Picasso, Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin, Tupac Shakur, Don Simpson, Anna Nicole Smith, William Desmond Taylor, Sharon Tate, Tiny Tim, Ritchie Valens, Hervé Villechaize, Barry White, and Jimmy Witherspoon.

* April 29-Duke Ellington, jazz musician and composer ( died 1974 )

Nanton died from a stroke in San Francisco, California on July 20, 1946, while on tour with the Ellington Orchestra.

From then until he died twenty years later Hines recorded endlessly both solo and with jazz notables like Cat Anderson, Harold Ashby, Barney Bigard, Lawrence Brown, Dave Brubeck ( they recorded duets in 1975 ), Jaki Byard ( duets in 1972 ), Benny Carter, Buck Clayton, Cozy Cole, Wallace Davenport, Eddie " Lockjaw " Davis, Vic Dickenson, Roy Eldridge, Duke Ellington ( duets in 1966 ), Ella Fitzgerald, Panama Francis, Bud Freeman, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Paul Gonsalves, Stephane Grappelli, Sonny Greer, Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Peanuts Hucko, Helen Humes, Budd Johnson, Jonah Jones, Max Kaminsky, Gene Krupa, Ellis Larkins, Marian McPartland ( duets in 1970 ), Gerry Mulligan, Ray Nance, Oscar Peterson ( duets in 1968 ), Russell Procope, Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Rushing, Stuff Smith, Rex Stewart, Maxine Sullivan, Buddy Tate, Jack Teagarden, Clark Terry, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Venuti, Earle Warren, Ben Webster, Teddy Wilson ( duets in 1965 & 1970 ), Jimmy Witherspoon, Jimmy Woode and Lester Young.

When Duke Ellington died in 1974, Nat Hentoff wrote in The Village Voice about how Ellington's music reflected his African heritage.

Republican Winfield Dunn was inaugurated to succeed him in January, 1971, and Ellington died less than two years later.

Ray Ellington died of cancer on 27 February 1985.

Reverend Henry Weston Smith ( Preacher Smith ) ( b. January 10, 1827 in Ellington, Connecticut – died August 20, 1876 between Deadwood and Crook City, South Dakota ) was an early resident of Deadwood, South Dakota.

Strayhorn worked for Ellington for the next quarter century as an arranger, composer, occasional pianist and collaborator until his early death from cancer.

Notable jazz bassists from the 1940s to the 1950s included bassist Jimmy Blanton ( 1918 – 1942 ) whose short tenure in the Duke Ellington Swing band ( cut short by his death from tuberculosis ) introduced new melodic and harmonic solo ideas for the instrument ; bassist Ray Brown ( 1926 – 2002 ), known for backing Beboppers Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum and Charlie Parker, and forming the Modern Jazz Quartet ; hard bop bassist Ron Carter ( born 1937 ), who has appeared on 3, 500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, including LPs by Thelonious Monk and Wes Montgomery and many Blue Note Records artists ; and Paul Chambers ( 1935 – 1969 ), a member of the Miles Davis Quintet ( including the landmark modal jazz recording Kind of Blue ) and many other 1950s and 1960s rhythm sections, was known for his virtuosic improvisations.

Performing at the recording session were Ellington on the piano and doing the narration, 16 of his orchestra members, four vocalists including the Swedish singer Alice Babs, and five choirs: the AME Mother Zion Church Choir, the choirs Of St Hilda's and St. Hugh's School, the Central Connecticut State College Singers, and the Frank Parker Singers.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Kennedy Ellington.

They lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place ( now Ward Place ), NW in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D. C. His father, James Edward Ellington, was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina on April 15, 1879 and moved to Washington, D. C. in 1886 with his parents.

Ellington made eight records in 1924, receiving composing credit on three including Choo Choo.

From the beginning of their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every label including Brunswick, Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Perfect, Pathe, the ARC / Plaza group of labels ( Cameo, Romeo, Lincoln, Oriole, Domino, Jewel, Banner ), Hit of the Week, and Columbia's cheaper labels ( Harmony, Diva, Velvet Tone, Clarion ) labels which gave Ellington popular recognition, as well giving Ellington's fans the opportunity of hearing multiple versions of the same song.

Ellington debuted Black, Brown and Beige in Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, beginning a series of concerts there suited to displaying Ellington's longer works.

Ellington continued on his own course through these tectonic shifts in the music business.

This continued until Ellington basically signed exclusively to Brunswick in 1932 and stayed with them through late 1936, when Irving Mills put him on Mills ' new Master label, and various small groups within Ellington's band recorded on Mills ' Variety label ' fronted ' by his 4 main soloists, Barney Bigard, Rex Stewart, Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams.

After the Master and Variety labels collapsed in late 1937, Mills placed Ellington back on Brunswick and those small group units on Vocalion through 1940, when Ellington signed back to Victor ( and the small groups were placed on Bluebird ).

While his music had been featured on screen for years and sometimes the whole orchestra in film shorts, Ellington ( with Strayhorn ) now began to work directly on music for movies, contributing scores for Anatomy of a Murder ( 1959 ) and Paris Blues ( 1961 ).

Ellington married his high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson, on July 2, 1918, when he was 19.

Shortly after their marriage, on March 11, 1919 Edna gave birth to their only son, Mercer Kennedy Ellington.

On February 24, 2009, the United States Mint launched a new coin featuring Duke Ellington, making him the first African American to appear by himself on a circulating U. S. coin.

Ellington appears on the reverse (" tails ") side of the District of Columbia quarter.

* May 24 – Duke Ellington, American jazz pianist and bandleader ( b. 1899 )

Edward Kennedy " Duke " Ellington ( April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974 ) was an American composer, pianist, and big-band leader.

Duke Ellington at the Hurricane Club in New York, May 1943

Ellington was incorporated in May, 1786, from East Windsor.

Originally part of the town of Windsor, Ellington was part of the town of East Windsor from that town's incorporation in 1768 until Ellington split off twenty years later and incorporated itself in May 1786.

The former Ellington Supermarket, May 2006.

* May 24 – Duke Ellington, jazz musician, and composer, 75

* Arrangers: Van Alexander, Ralph Burns, Toots Camarata, Benny Carter, Buck Clayton, Ray Conniff, Eddie Durham, Duke Ellington, Bill Finegan, Jerry Gray, Bob Haggart, Buster Harding, Lennie Hayton, Neal Hefti, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, Gordon Jenkins, Billy May, Jimmy Mundy, Sy Oliver, Nat Pierce, Johnny Richards, Edgar Sampson, Eddie Sauter, Billy Strayhorn

Established by the Army Air Service on 21 May 1917, Ellington Field was one of the initial World War I Army Air Service installations when aviation was in its infancy.

William Thomas " Billy " Strayhorn ( November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967 ) was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades.

Shortly before Ellington went on his second European tour with his orchestra, from March to May 1939, Ellington announced to his sister Ruth and son Mercer Ellington, that Strayhorn " is staying with us.

In May 2009, Francine Bellson fascinated jazz fans when she told The Jazz Joy and Roy syndicated radio show, " I like to call ( Sacred ) ' how The Master used two maestros ,'" adding, " When ( Ellington ) did his sacred concert back in 1965 with Louie on drums, he told Louie that the sacred concerts were based on ' in-the-beginning ,' the first three words of the bible.

Lighthouse made its debut on May 14, 1969, at the Rock Pile in Toronto, introduced by Duke Ellington with the words, " I'm beginning to see the Light ... house ".

Ellington was appointed Chief of the Air Staff on 22 May 1933.

# May 1970-December 1970, administrative specialist, 2578th Supply Squadron, Ellington AFB, Texas