Clarence Brown, the singer and guitarist who built a 50-year career playing blues, country, jazz and Cajun music, died Saturday in his hometown of Orange, Texas, where he had gone to escape Hurricane Katrina, his agent said. He was 81.

Slideshow: Notable Deaths, 2005

Known as "Gatemouth'' Brown, he had been battling lung cancer and heart disease and was in ill health for the past year.

Although his career first took off in the 1940s with blues hits "Okie Dokie Stomp'' and ``Ain't That Dandy,'' Brown bristled when he was labeled a bluesman.

In the second half of his career, he became known as a musical jack-of-all-trades who played a half-dozen instruments and culled from jazz, country, Texas blues, and the zydeco and Cajun music of his native Louisiana.

By the end of his career, Brown had more than 30 recordings and won a Grammy award in 1982.

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In Indianapolis, sportscaster Chris Schenkel, whose easygoing baritone won over fans during a more than six-decade broadcasting career in which he covered everything from bowling to the Olympics, died Sunday following a long battle with emphysema, his wife said. He was 82.

Schenkel's radio and television career included virtually every major sports competition and several pioneering broadcasts. He was the first to cover the Masters Tournament on television in 1956; the first to call a college football game coast-to-coast on ABC; and the first to serve as live sports anchor from the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968.

His career highlights included calling gymnast Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10 at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, and calling the 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants.

He was also the longtime voice of the Professional Bowlers Association, entertaining a generation of viewers with his Saturday afternoon broadcasts.

Schenkel was inducted into 16 halls of fame, including the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters and College and Pro Football halls, and he won an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1993.