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People in the News

2 teen street singers take the stage with Cyndi Lauper

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Two North Carolina teens went overnight from singing on a street corner to sharing a stage with Grammy Award-winning singer Cyndi Lauper.

Mya Worley, 14, was singing on a city street last Friday with her 13-year-old brother Ronald on the keyboard, as they have done all summer under their father’s guidance, The Charlotte Observer reported. Two women stopped to listen and one suggested they had to get the teens “to play tomorrow.”

With Lauper standing nearby, manager Lisa Barbaris approached Ronald Worley Sr. and asked if his kids would sing Lauper’s 1983 hit “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” with the pop icon at a concert.

Less than 24 hours later, the siblings were at the 20,000-seat Spectrum Center.

Mya Rowling sang the first verse and chorus of the song, which was rearranged by Lauper and Rowling to be an almost-gospel-hymn-like number. The only musical accompaniment for her portion was Ronald Jr. on a keyboard.

The crowd roared as Mya held the last note, then gave way to Lauper and the upbeat version known to nearly everyone.

As thrilled as Mya and Ronald Jr. were by the experience, it was their father who may have gotten the biggest thrill.

“I’m an ’80s child,” Ronald Sr. said. “I grew up listening to her music. I always loved Cyndi Lauper. … So this was just incredible. I tell you, it was so incredible. … Cyndi wrote some things down on paper for us, so I have a piece of paper with her handwriting on it that we’ll never, ever, ever, ever, ever-ever lose.”

Sheriff: Radio host Art Bell died of prescription overdose

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Art Bell, a former syndicated AM radio host best known for nightly shows in the 1990s featuring paranormal themes and conspiracy theories, died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, authorities in Nevada said Wednesday.

An autopsy found the 72-year-old Bell’s death April 13 at home in rural Pahrump was from “multiple drug intoxication from his own lawfully prescribed prescriptions,” Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly’s office said in a brief Facebook announcement . It called the death an accidental overdose.

Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg, whose office in Las Vegas handled the medical examination, said Bell had the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone, the sedative diazepam and the muscle-relaxant carisoprodol in his system. High blood pressure and the lung disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder were additional “significant conditions” in Bell’s death, Fudenberg said.

The coroner said there was no indication of foul play.

Bell produced, engineered and hosted his radio talk show, “Coast to Coast AM,” from his radio station, KNYE, before he left the airwaves in 2002. Pahrump is about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Las Vegas.

The program focused on Bell’s fascination with unexplained phenomenon such as UFOs and crop circles.

At its peak, Bell’s show was heard on about 500 radio stations nationwide. He retired more than once and had a brief run on SiriusXM satellite radio in 2013.

He was inducted in 2008 into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

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