Friday, Aug. 3, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.
SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
In the mid-1960s, shortly before the Fifth Dimension hit it big on the charts, they were five young unknown singers who got a big break in Las Vegas.
"Davey Victorson, entertainment director at Caesars Palace at the time, told me I had to come hear these guys sing," Sun entertainment columnist Joe Delaney said.
"Davey booked them in the lounge, they sang 'Up, Up and Away (in My Beautiful Balloon)' and soon after they became Strip headliners and international stars."
On Thursday, the group that has entertained millions with their soft, smooth pop sound for 36 years, lost one of its founding members when Ron Townson, the portly performer for the Grammy-winning quintet, died of kidney failure at his Las Vegas home following a lengthy illness. He was 68.
Services are pending through Affordable Cremation and Burial.
"Ron Townson, to me, was the anchor of the group," Delaney said. "He was a great ballad singer who could capture the essence of what the song was all about."
While Townson sang mostly backup, he would at various times during shows take the lead on songs such as "Let Me Try Again," which was written by Paul Anka for Frank Sinatra. Delaney said the song became one of Townson's signature pieces.
Townson also would perform Fats Waller standards such as "Ain't Misbehavin" and Duke Ellington tunes, Delaney said, noting, "Ron had great range so he could perform any area of the arrangement."
Declining health forced Townson to retire in 1997, ending a career that saw him tour with such music legends as Nat King Cole and Dorothy Dandridge.
"Ron always felt that he would get well enough that he would perform again," said Bobette Townson, his wife of 44 years. "He never lost his desire to do that."
The Fifth Dimension combined the sounds of pop, jazz, gospel and rhythm and blues for such 1960s hits as "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In," and the Laura Nyro songs "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic." The group won four Grammys in 1968 for the Jimmy Webb tune "Up, Up and Away."
Townson was born in St. Louis and began singing at age 6 in school and church choirs. He attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., where he directed choirs, and moved to Los Angeles in 1957.
In 1965 he and a childhood friend, LaMonte McLemore, formed a singing group called the Versatiles that, McLemore recalled Thursday, they soon renamed the Fifth Dimension at the suggestion of Townson's wife.
Other original members were Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis.
As various members left the Fifth Dimension in the 1970s to pursue solo projects, Townson formed the group Ron Townson and Wild Honey. Later, he reunited with McLemore and LaRue in a new version of the Fifth Dimension that included Phyllis Battle and Greg Walker.
That revamped Fifth Dimension performed at the Las Vegas Hilton in the early 1990s.
Early on, some critics dismissed the group as black singers trying to sound white.
"I know some people accuse us of singing white, but it makes me laugh," Townson told the Los Angeles Times in 1970. "It is based on ignorance. People sing styles. They don't sing colors."
In addition to his wife, Townson is survived by a son, Kyle Townson, and a brother, Rodney Townson, both of Las Vegas; two grandsons, Jamarre Townson and Jarred Townson, both of Los Angeles; and two granddaughters, Kayli Townson of Las Vegas and Georgette Townson of Los Angeles. He was preceeded in death by a son, Kim Townson.
Sun reporter Ed Koch and Associated Press writer Ken Ritter
contributed to this report.
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