Ronald Louis Caldwell (December 27, 1948 – December 10, 1967) was an American

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

and R&B musician. A keyboard player, Caldwell was the only white member of the

Bar-Kays The Bar-Kays are an American funk band formed in 1964. The band had dozens of charting singles from the 1960s to the 1980s, including "Soul Finger" (US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number 17, R&B number 3) in 1967, "Son of Shaft" (R&B number 10) in ...

musical group based in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. The group recorded with and also accompanied singer

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...

. According to James Alexander, Caldwell was fully accepted within Memphis' black community, to the point that Caldwell felt free to go about in public with his black girlfriend, despite the attitude of

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

prevalent at that time. Caldwell died on December 10, 1967, seventeen days prior to his 19th birthday, of a plane crash in

Lake Monona Lake Monona is a freshwater drainage lake in Dane County, Wisconsin, surrounded on three sides by the city of Madison, Wisconsin, and on the south east side by the city of Monona, Wisconsin. It is the second-largest of a chain of four lakes along ...

with Redding and three other band members (

Phalon Jones Phalon R. Jones, Jr. (1948 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul and R&B musician. Jones was a saxophonist for musical group the Bar-Kays, which recorded with and also played backup for Otis Redding. Jones and three other members of the Bar- ...

, Carl Cunningham and Jimmie King), their

valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, valet de chambre was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "vale ...

Matthew Kelly and the pilot Richard Fraser while on their way to a performance in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. Caldwell is interred in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis.

External links

* 1948 births 1967 deaths Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States American funk keyboardists Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee The Bar-Kays members 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American keyboardists Burials at Memorial Park Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee) Musicians killed in aviation accidents or incidents Accidental deaths in Wisconsin Accidents and incidents involving the Beechcraft Model 18 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1967 {{US-keyboardist-stub