USHER'S FATHER PASSES AWAY FRIDAY IN ATLANTA

According to the Chattanooga Times, R&B singer Usher's biological father, Usher Raymond III, died on Friday, January 18, 2008 in an Atlanta hospital. He was 50 years old. The cause of death was not immediately known and Usher was unavailable for comment. The funeral will take place this week at the Taylor funeral home chapel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here's little background info on Usher and his father's former estranged relationship: Usher III walked out on Usher's mother, Jonetta Patton shortly after she gave birth to their son on Oct. 14, 1978, in Chattanooga. "It took him a long time to accept Usher was his boy," said Don King, an old school friend. "He was a good man who got in with the wrong crowd. He started taking crack cocaine, freebasing and then stealing." Until recently, father and son had been on the outs before Usher made the decision to allow his father--who had been addicted to crack and jailed several times for shoplifting, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer--back into his life soon after he released his record-breaking album Confessions in 2004. And although his father had abandoned him, Usher still pledged to help his dad when he was released from prison over 2 years ago. VIA:R101