ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996                   TAG: 9606100045
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: NEW YORK
                                             TYPE: NEWS OBIT

DRIFTERS' BASS SINGER DIES OF CANCER AT 59

Elsbeary Hobbs, a singer with the rhythm-and-blues vocal group the Drifters, has died at 59.

The Manhattan native died at the Veterans Hospital in Manhattan on May 31. The cause was throat and lung cancer, said his manager, Larry Marshak.

He joined the vocal group the Five Crowns, led by Ben E. King, in 1956.

The manager of the Drifters, George Treadwell, recruited the Five Crowns to be the new Drifters after the original lineup of the Drifters disbanded.

Hobbs' bass voice opened the band's first big hit, ``There Goes My Baby.'' - Associated Press

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