Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Jerry Betters

By Moustafa Ayad
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Jerry Betters, a jazz vocalist with a velveteen voice that matched his mentor Billy Eckstine's and a remarkable ability to slap skins on a drum set, died Thursday morning. He was 74.

Mr. Betters, who was fighting throat cancer in the final years of his life, died after being struck by a truck in Connellsville as he crossed a roadway, said his brother and noted jazz trombonist Harold Betters.

Harold Betters said his younger brother was in Connellsville getting his throat stretched, a procedure that helped ease his ability to talk.

Mr. Betters was blind in his right eye and traffic was coming from his right as he crossed Route 119, his brother said.

The youngest of seven children, Mr. Betters took to music at a young age in part because his parents owned Betters' Grill and Hotel, an entertainment spot, restaurant and hotel in the heart of Connellsville.

"He always wanted to be out front, and he had a very good voice," said Harold Betters.

With his parents' backing, Mr. Betters began banging on his first drum set and in no time was commanding a seat behind a set of his own in the Betters family band. Mr. Betters' penchant for drumming eventually led him to Harlem.

He dropped out of high school at 17 and traveled to New York with only a 22-inch cymbal and only a few clothes stowed away inside a bass drum. It was not easy trying to make it in New York, and soon Mr. Betters, under the tutelage of some teachers, was eking out a living.

Gracing the stage at the legendary Apollo Theater -- and later touring through the South with a comedy and musical group led by boxer Joe Louis -- allowed Mr. Betters to see the two Americas at play. There was the America of racial segregation, and there was the America that gave birth to jazz, a musical innovation unto itself.

Mr. Betters eventually returned to Connellsville, teaming with his brother, Harold, the trombonist, and quickly became a mainstay in the area. Over the years, Mr. Betters performed on several of Harold's recordings, including "All My Tomorrows."

When the late Lenny Litman, who owned two top Pittsburgh nightspots, heard Mr. Betters, he gave him a shot in the Midway Lounge, a place where Dave Brubeck, Roy Eldridge, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis and others had performed.

After a year or so at the Midway, Mr. Betters took his act and audience to the old Crawford Grill, the legendary nightspot in the Hill District. In 1970, Mr. Betters opened the Crescendo, a club he operated in Oakland until the lease expired in 1984.

Throughout the 1980s and '90s, Mr. Betters continued to perform around the area. In November 2001, Mr. Betters and several other celebrities were inducted into the Gene Kelly/Billy Strayhorn "Gallery of Stars" in front of the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty.

Harold Betters said his brother had a "far out" side, believing in flying spaceships from outer space and cavorting with celebrities. He also was a bit of a womanizer, his brother admitted.

"When he died, he wanted all of his pallbearers to be women," said Harold Betters with a chuckle.

"You know what I wish?" he asked a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter rhetorically in 2003. "I wish I and all my friends and fans live to be a hundred years old and the last voice they hear is mine. I'll be singing Sinatra's `I Did It My Way.' "

Mr. Betters is survived by his wife, Phyllis Pollard Betters, of Connellsville; and three children, Harold Betters, Brenda Wilcox and Jennifer Betters Redman.

Arrangements were not complete last night. The Martucci Funeral Home in Connellsville was handling the funeral service.

A tribute is planned for Tuesday at the funeral home.