Edward Benjamin Townsend (April 16, 1929
Biography
Townsend was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, United States, in 1929, and his family soon moved to Memphis, where his father was pastor at an African Methodist Episcopal church.
The year Townsend graduated from high school, he was elected to the International American Methodist Episcopal Youth Council (IAMEYC) and traveled worldwide before enrolling in college the next year at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (formerly Arkansas AM&N College). After graduating, he taught for a year. Although he never formally practiced law, he frequently used his law training to assist other entertainers in negotiating their recording and performance contracts.
In 1951, Townsend joined the United States Marine Corps and served in Korea.
Townsend performed on the PBS television special "Rock, Rhythm, and Doo Wop" filmed at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 16 and 17, 2000. DVDs of the event were sold as fundraisers for PBS stations nationwide.
He died of a heart attack on August 13, 2003. Honored with a Purple Heart in the Korean War, Townsend is buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.
Ed's son David Townsend, of the band Surface, died at age fifty in 2005.