Ray Charles remembered as best-known grad of St. Augustine school

<p>The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind joined fans around the nation Thursday mourning the loss of music artist Ray Charles, the school's most famous graduate.</p><p>"He was a legend and our students were proud to be associated with him," said Kathy Gillespie, a spokeswoman for the school.</p><p>Charles died Thursday at age 73 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.</p><p>Charles attended the school from the age of 7 until he was 15, beginning in the late 1930s, she said.</p><p>At the school, he learned to read and write music in Braille.</p><p>"Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory," Charles once said. "I can sit at my desk and write a whole arrangement in my head and never touch the piano."</p><p>Charles also worked as an announcer in a St. Augustine radio station WFOY, walking two blocks to go to work, she said.</p><p>After leaving school, "he had a continuing relationship with the school," where students study his music and his career, Gillespie said. In 1970, Gillespie said Charles played a concert in Ocala to benefit the school's building fund.</p><p>Although he was born in Georgia, his family moved to Greenville, Fla., about 40 miles east of Tallahassee, when he was an infant.</p><p>"He was a great Floridian who touched the lives of everyone who had an opportunity to see him perform," said Gov. Jeb Bush in Tallahassee. "His commitment to education, music and the arts will always be remembered."</p><p>In 1992, Charles was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, joining Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and John D. McDonald.</p><p>In April 1990, he received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the University of South Florida in Tampa.</p><p>In February 1991, he returned to USF for a benefit concert at the Sun Dome with the USF Community Gospel Choir. Proceeds from the concert were divided between the College of Fine Arts Music Scholarship Fund and Charles' foundation.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>Florida School for the Deaf and Blind: www.fsdb.k12.fl.us/</p><p>Ray Charles Web Site: www.raycharles.com</p>