July 22, 2016

Sonny Bono achieved commercial success, along with his then-wife Cher, as part of the singing duo Sonny and Cher. He was mayor of Palm Springs, California, and congressman for California's 44th district from 1995 until his death in 1998. Sonny Bono died on January 5, 1998, of injuries sustained when he hit a tree while skiing on the Nevada side of Heavenly Ski Resort near South Lake Tahoe, California. Bono, who had been coming to the resort for 20 years, was on vacation with his wife and their two children at the time. Not long after his passing, his widow agreed to run for his congressional seat. She won election to Congress and served their district until 2003. The epitaph on Bono's headstone reads: "AND THE BEAT GOES ON".