SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Art Rupe, the founder of Los Angeles-based Specialty Records, died on Friday at his home in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 104.
Rupe’s daughter, Beverly Rupe Schwarz, confirmed her father’s death, The New York Times reported.
According to Variety, Specialty launched the prolific careers of such artists as Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Lloyd Price, Roy Milton and Percy Mayfield after its 1946 launch.
Meanwhile, the Times credited the independent label with bringing “rhythm and blues into the mainstream” and helping “set the table for the rock ‘n’ roll era.”
Rupe was also an oil and gas entrepreneur, who spent his final decades “devoted to the work of his Arthur N. Rupe Foundation in Santa Barbara,” Variety reported.
Born Arthur Newton Goldberg in 1917, Rupe grew up in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suburb of McKeesport.
According to his foundation, he “attended college at Virginia Tech and Miami University of Ohio, and in 1939 set off for Los Angeles to make his way in the world.”
He changed his surname to Rupe after moving west, after learning from his grandfather that it was the family name before Goldberg was adopted at Ellis Island, Variety reported.
Rupe is survived by his daughter, Beverly Rupe Schwarz; a son-in-law, Leo Schwarz; and a granddaughter, Madeline Kahan.
Read the full New York Times report.
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