American singer Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves was born on Nov. 28, 1943, at a United States Air Force base in Georgetown in what was then British Guyana.

Greaves could be categorized as a one-hit-wonder with 1969′s pop classic “Take a Letter Maria” which reached number-two on the Billboard Hot 100.  The song was about a jilted husband who came home to find his wife “in the arms of another man”.  The lyrics  are the singer dictating a “Dear Jane” letter to his secretary who he then asks out on a date.

Greaves was the nephew of  Gospel and Soul singer Sam Cooke.  He died last Thursday in Los Angeles where he mad his home.  His death was confirmed by his son Shiloh Greaves.