Musician Fats Domino Spotted Among Survivors

Feared dead, the "Blueberry Hill" singer is seen in a photograph and is brought to safety

Photo: Times-Picayune/NNS/Landov

Legendary R&B singer Fats Domino, feared dead among the thousands of people presumed lost to the floods that hit New Orleans in the wake of Monday’s Hurricane Katrina, has been identified as a survivor, his agent said on Friday.

His daughter, Karen Domino White, a New Jersey resident, spotted her father in a photo in the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper as the 77-year-old singer was being lifted into a boat from his house, says CNN.

The musician, his wife, Rosemary, and their daughter were picked up by a rescue boat Tuesday after frantic efforts by his agent Al Embry to alert authorities that Domino and his family were believed trapped in their home, Reuters reported.

“He is doing well, he’s just stressed out a little bit,” Embry said in a phone interview from Nashville, Tennessee. “But praise God, he got out of the thing.”

He said Domino and his family initially were taken to the Superdome in New Orleans and have since been moved to an unspecified but safe location “because of all the media attention.”

On Thursday, Domino and his family were reported missing by Embry, who told the Associated Press that he’d had no word from Domino since talking to him by phone Sunday evening, on the eve of the hurricane. At the time, according to Embry, Domino said that he planned to stay at his New Orleans house.

Domino’s niece, Checquoline Davis, posted a message Thursday on the Craigslist Web bulletin board, pleading for information. She wrote that Domino and his family “didn’t get out” of the second floor.

The Rock Hall of Famer (real name: Antoine Domino) resides in the 9th ward, a low-lying area of the flooded city, where police- and hospital-communications lines continue to be down.

Domino, an early rock pioneer, has sold more than 110 million records since his star first rose to stardom in the early ’50s. Among his most famous songs are “Blueberry Hill,” “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Walkin’ to New Orleans.”