The Miracles Co-Founder Bobby Rogers Passes Away

Entertainment Tonight, Monday, March 4, 2013, 3:32am (PST)

Entertainment Tonight.

Bobby Rogers, an original member of the Motown group The Miracles, passed away in his home city of Detroit on Sunday at the age of 73.

Rogers (pictured second from the right), who founded The Miracles in 1956 with Smokey Robinson, Claudette Rogers, Pete Moore, and Ronnie White, is said to have been in deteriorating health for some years.

In addition to making classic Motown hits with The Miracles like their No. 1 single "Shop Around," the Detroit-born man was also an occasional songwriter. His most well-known composition was The Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do," which he wrote with Robinson.

"Another soldier in my life has fallen. Bobby Rogers was my brother and a really good friend," Robinson said Sunday in a statement to the Associated Press. "He and I were born on the exact same day in the same hospital in Detroit. I am really going to miss him. I loved him very much."

As Robinson noted, he and Rogers were both born on the same day but didn't meet one another until they were fifteen years old. Robinson eventually married Rogers' cousin, Claudette, also a founding member of The Miracles.

"He had the sparkling personality that was loved by everyone. People always commented on the tall one with the glasses," she told the Detroit Free Press. "He was personable, approachable and he loved talking to the women, loved talking to the guys, loved to dance, loved to sing, loved to perform. That was the joy of his life."

After Rogers and the rest of The Miracles received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009, he and the band were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2012. He was too ill to attend the ceremony.

The cause of Rogers death has yet to be determined but is believed to be linked to his recent poor health.

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