Death
On September 29, 1975, Wilson was one of the featured acts in Dick Clark's Good Ol' Rock and Roll Revue, hosted by the Latin Casino near Cherry Hill, NJ. He was in the middle of singing "Lonely Teardrops" when he suffered a heart attack, during the middle of the line: "My heart is crying." When he collapsed on stage, audience members initially thought it was part of the act. Dick Clark, when he saw it, ordered the musicians to stop the music. Cornell Gunter of The Coasters, who was backstage, noticed Wilson was not breathing. Gunter was able to resuscitate him and Wilson was then rushed to a nearby hospital.
Medical personnel worked nearly 30 minutes to stabilize his vitals, but the lack of oxygen to his brain caused him to slip into a coma. He briefly emerged in early 1976, and was even able to take a few wobbly steps but slipped back into a semi-comatose state. He was a resident of the Medford Leas Retirement Center in Mount Holly, NJ when he was admitted into Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, NJ due to having trouble taking nourishment, according to Wilson's attorney John Mulkerin.
Jackie Wilson died on January 21, 1984, at the age of 49 from complications of pneumonia. Initially, he was buried in an unmarked grave at Westlawn Cemetery near Detroit. In 1987, a fundraiser collected enough money to purchase a headstone.
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