drink an occasional glass of wine. He instead resumed drinking heavily, and his health began to decline. Despite this, in the early 1970s he appeared several times on prime-time network television in the United States. After the offers for television stopped, he continued touring, attracting major media attention outside the United States, until he gave his final concert, a benefit for the Grand Theater in Salem, Oregon on October 6, 1989. Ray performed for many years after the National Enquirer began investigating and reporting celebrity substance abuse, but it made no mention of him during his lifetime. Death In early 1990, poor health forced Ray to check into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center near his home in Los Angeles. He was confined there for more than two weeks without the knowledge of journalists or talk radio personalities who had interviewed him in various countries throughout the 1980s. On February 24, 1990, he died of hepatic encephalopathy resulting from liver failure at Cedars-Sinai. Kay Starr was among those who spoke at a public memorial service held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. He is buried at Hopewell Cemetery near Hopewell, Oregon. Legacy For his contribution to the recording industry, Johnnie Ray was honored with a star in 1960 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1999, Bear Family Records issued two five-CD sets of his entire body of work, each containing an 84-page book on his career. Companies including Sony Music Entertainment (the parent company of Columbia Records) and collectables have kept his large catalogue of recordings in continual release worldwide. Music journalist Robert A. Rodriguez noted Ray's contemporary obscurity in his 2006 book The 1950s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels, Cold War Crises, and All American Oddities, writing: Though barely remembered today, to the fifties record buying public Ray was something of a former-day Leonard Cohen or a Morrissey, creating a body of work that was the very definition of depressionfest. With titles like "What's the Use", "Oh, What a Sad, Sad Day", and "Here I Am Broken Hearted", coupled with a stage show that was as emotionally draining as a revival meeting, Ray dominated the pre-rock & roll charts. Scholar Cheryl Herr notes the impact of Ray's deafness on his unique performing style and vocals, writing, "[Ray was] a singer whose hearing range appears