
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995                   TAG: 9502240081
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

1 OF ORIGINAL TEMPTATIONS DIES

Melvin Franklin, an original member of The Temptations, died of heart failure Thursday. He was 52.

Last week, Franklin was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a series of seizures, said hospital spokesman Ron Wise.

``He sustained significant neurological damage, which was complicated by diabetes and other medical problems,'' Wise said.

Born Oct. 12, 1942, in Montgomery, Ala., Franklin was a member of the Elgins, renamed the Primes, and began recording for Motown in 1960. He, Otis Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams and Eldridge Bryant became the Temptations in 1962. By 1982 they had sold about 22 million records.

The group scored hits with such songs as ``The Way You Do the Things You Do,'' ``My Girl,'' ``Just My Imagination'' and ``Papa Was a Rolling Stone.''

- Associated Press

by CNB