Mother of Burton Cummings Dies

[jon]

While you won't see a lot of articles about the passing of a musician's parents, Rhoda, Burton Cummings' mother deserves special attention. She died last night after suffering a stroke just a few days before.

This was a lady with guts. And we wouldn't know who Burton Cummings is if it weren't for her.

She fed his passion for music throughout his childhood, even as a teenager after he dropped out of high school. And "She was a wonderful, strong woman," wrote Cummings. "My father was abusive to her, and yet way back in the 1940s she had the strength to grab me and leave him."

When Burton joined the Guess Who, Rhoda made Randy Bachman promise to keep Burton out of trouble.