Teddy Pendergrass has died

(HMG) – Soul singer Teddy Pendergrass, has died Wednesday at age 59.  Pendergrass was once R&B’s reigning sex symbol in the 1970s and ’80s. Pendergrass first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s, with hits like ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now,’ before embarking on a successful solo career in 1976.   and later became an inspirational figure after He suffered a devastating car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, after he crashed his Rolls-Royce on Lincoln Drive in the Germantown section of Philadelphia in 1982

After the car accident, he spent six months in a hospital but returned to recording the next year with the album Love Language.  He returned to the stage at the Live Aid concert in 1985, performing from his wheelchair.  In 2009, Pendergrass underwent colon cancer surgery eight months ago, had difficulty recovering, and passed away yesterday at the age of 59, according to the singer’s son, Teddy Pendergrass II.  Rest in peace, Teddy Bear!