During 2015, there were a number of deaths in the entertainment industry. 

KING Sporty, co-writer of Bob Marley’s Buffalo Soldier, died in Miami in January at age 71.

A pillar of the reggae community in South Florida, the Portland native was born Noel Williams. He started his career as a deejay at Studio One in the 1960s, but was best known in Jamaica for the single, Thinking Of You.

DERRICK ‘Corey’ Edwards, a member of dancehall group Merital Family, was shot and killed in Montego Bay on May 7.

The 32-year-old entertainer and the group were a part of Vybz Kartel’s Portmore Empire. They had a hit with the 2010 single, My Money Ha Ha.

TOYA, wife of Downsound Records boss Joe Bogdanovich, succumbed to complications from diabetes in May. She was 31 years old.

Toya was known for songs such as Boss Lady and You a Lie.

MAURICE Roberts, a founding member of famed vocal trio The Gaylads, died in August at age 70.

Along with Horace ‘Bibi’ Seaton and Winston ‘Delano’ Stewart, Roberts formed the classic Gaylads line-up, one of the rocksteady era’s great harmony groups.

RICO Rodriquez, the influential trombonist, died in September at age 80 in London.

A past student of the Alpha Boys’ School in Kingston, the Cuba-born Rodriquez was a contemporary of another great trombonist, Don Drummond, and Count Ossie of the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.

He moved to England in the early 1960s and made his name at a session. He is best known for his 1976 landmark album, Man From Wareika.

Osbert ‘Madoo’ Maddo, a singer who had big hits in the early 1980s with Jamming So and Coming From Town, died in Bangor, Maine in September. He was 56.

ANTHONY Winkler, the respected author and screenplay writer, died in September at his home in Georgia. He was 73.

Winkler’s books included The Lunatic, The Painted Canoe and The Annihilation of Fish. The Lunatic, published in 1987, was made into a film bearing the same title.

He was co-writer of the screenplay for Cool Runnings, the 1993 hit movie about Jamaica’s groundbreaking bobsled team.

GLADSTONE Anderson, a keyboardist who left his mark on ska, rocksteady and reggae, died in December at age 81.

Anderson played on numerous hit songs including Girl I’ve Got a Date by Alton Ellis, It May Sound Silly by John Holt and Derrick Harriott’s Solomon. He also teamed with Stranger Cole on the hit song, Just Like a River.

PETER Broggs died in December. He was 61. The Hanover-born Broggs (real name Henry James) was a roots singer with a considerable following in Europe.

His 1982 album, Rastafari Liveth!, helped to launch an independent Washington DC company known as RAS Records.

J CAPRI died on December 4 at age 23. The singer, whose given name was Jordan Phillips, was involved in a motor vehicle accident on November 23.