CLEVELAND, Jan.

Merl Saunders, a keyboardist known for playing with Jerry Garcia, died at a San Francisco hospital almost seven years after a crippling stroke. Saunders, 74, had been suffering from infections, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. He died Friday at Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center.

By Marijke Rowland, The Modesto Bee, Calif. Jun. 20--It would be tempting to simplify Bob Weir's career as a long, strange trip. And, certainly, it has been that.

By Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Apr. 24--The Grateful Dead's long strange trip through American popular culture is ending in a library at the University of California at Santa Cruz, preserved for future generations of study by scholars and stoners.

By MOHINI MEHROTRA Deborah Koons Garcia. The last time that Deborah Koons Garcia was in India, it was to scatter the ashes of her late husband, Jerry Garcia, vocalist and lead guitarist of the band Grateful Dead. That was 12 years ago.