Longtime LV performer Shauntee killed in traffic accident

Jace Radke

Monday, April 2, 2001 | 11:17 a.m.

There wasn't much that singer Kenny Shauntee liked to do more than perform.

Since 1979 he and his brother Dana played Las Vegas from one end of the Strip to the other.

"They played at every casino I can think of, from the Strip to downtown," Shirlene Shauntee said of her siblings. "(Kenny) loved preforming more than his heart. He loved being a singer and a dancer."

Kenny Shauntee, who had recently rejoined his brother as part of the Sahara hotel's house band, was killed when another car collided with his limousine Friday afternoon.

Shauntee was heading home on Warm Springs Road when another car on Industrial Road failed to stop at a red light at the intersection and crashed into Shauntee's limousine, Metro Police said. Shauntee died at the scene. Investigation of the accident is continuing.

"Kenny's wife was a real estate agent, and he bought the limo so that he could drive her high-class clients around town," Shirlene Shauntee said. "He was using it as his personal transportation because his Harley Davidson had been stolen."

Shauntee, 47, was born in Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 11, 1953, joining a musically inclined family, Shirlene Shauntee said. He grew up in Elizabethtown, Ky., and later started a band with his brother playing rock 'n' roll and later funk and soul.

In 1972 Shauntee moved to Las Vegas and began performing on the Strip regularly in 1979. He was working as an opening act for Redd Foxx when he met his wife, Ana, who was also working in the show.

Shauntee played at the old Aladdin, where he once sang with Marla Staples of the Staples Singers.

"They were so good that when she was staying at the Aladdin she came down to the lounge to hear them play," Shirlene Shauntee said. "They played, 'I'll Take You There,' and she got up and sang with them. Afterwards Marla Staples told them that they were better than her own band."

After a stint at Palace Station, Shauntee rejoined his brother last year as part of a new band dubbed Area 51. Since then the two had been playing six nights a week at the Sahara.

Shauntee is survived by his wife; daughters, Nikki of Las Vegas and Rekkita Dolan of Oregon; two granddaughters; four sisters and three brothers.

Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at Affordable Cremation & Burial Service, 1325 N. Main St.