– The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – R.B. Greaves, a pop singer whose “Take a Letter, Maria” was a 1969 hit, has died in Los Angeles. He was 68.
Ronald Bertram Greaves died of prostate cancer on Sept. 27 at his home, said Craig Harvey, Los Angeles County coroner’s chief of operations.
Greaves was a nephew of the legendary R&B singer Sam Cook. He was born on a U.S. Air Force base in the former British Guyana.
Living in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, he recorded several soul singles as Sonny Childe.
It was after moving to the United States that he scored his biggest hit as R.B. Greaves.
“Take a Letter, Maria” tells the story of a man who comes home to find “the woman I thought I knew in the arms of another man.”
He dictates a final letter to her through his secretary.
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