Rep. Sonny Bono, half of the singing team Sonny and Cher before entering politics and being elected to Congress, was killed in a skiing accident near  Lake Tahoe, television networks reported Tuesday. The Douglas County, Nev., sheriff's department said Bono was reported missing about 7 p.m. Monday night and his body was found about 2 hours later. He was 62. The accident occurred at the Heavenly Ski Resort in the popular skiing area around Lake Tahoe on the border of California and Nevada. Bono, a Republican, has represented California in the House of Representatives since 1994. Previously, he had served as the mayor of Palm Springs, Calif. But Bono's greatest fame was as a singer with his wife Cher in the 1960s and 1970s with such songs as "I Got You Babe." The two later split with Cher going on to her own entertainment career and Bono heading into politics.
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Sonny Bono: Age 62
(b. Salvatore Bono, 12 February 1935, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 5 January 1998). Although primarily associated with the '60s folk-rock boom, Bono's career began the previous decade as director of A&R at Specialty Records. He co-wrote She Said Yeah for Larry Williams, later covered by the The Rolling Stones, and also pursued a recording career with the first of several singles bearing numerous aliases, including Don Christy, Sonny Christy and Ronny Sommers. A fruitful period under the aegis of producer Phil Spector inspired Bono to found the ill-fated Rush label, but he achieved a greater fame when Needles And Pins, a collaboration with Jack Nitzsche, was successfully recorded by Jackie DeShannon and the Searchers. In 1963 Bono met, and married, Cherilyn La Pierre, better known as Cher. Her fledgling singing career was subsequently augmented by their work as a duo, firstly as Caesar And Cleo, then Sonny And Cher. In 1965 the couple enjoyed an international smash with I Got You Babe, written, arranged and produced by Bono, who resurrected solo ambitions in the wake of its success. Although Laugh At Me reached the Top 10 in the US and UK, The Revolution Kind, Sonny's disavowal of the counter-culture, failed to emulate this feat. Bono's lone album, INNER VIEWS, was an artistic and commercial disaster and he subsequently abandoned solo recordings. Although Sonny and Cher sundered the personal partnership in 1974, they continued to host a popular television show. However, Bono later concentrated on an acting career with regular appearances on television and in several films, notably HAIRSPRAY. A registered Republican, he was voted mayor of Palm Springs in 1988, the day after his ex-wife won an Oscar for her role in MOONSTRUCK. In 1991, Bono announced his intention to run for the senate at the next election.
 

From Music Central 96

              By BERNARD WEINRAUB

              LOS ANGELES -- Rep. Sonny Bono, whose unexpected career in Republican politics followed
          an equally unexpected -- and successful -- career as a singer and television star with his former
          wife, Cher, was killed on Monday evening when he crashed into a tree while skiing in South Lake
          Tahoe, Calif. He was 62 and lived in Palm Springs, Calif.

          Bono was skiing with his wife, Mary Whitaker, and their two children when he left them about 1:30
          p.m. to ski alone at the Heavenly Ski Resort on the California-Nevada line, 55 miles south of Reno.
          Unaware that he had not made it down the hill, his wife, their son, Chesare, 9, and daughter,
          Chianna, 6, waited at the bottom of the slope. When he failed to appear after several hours, they
          reported him missing.

          Bono's body was found by the ski patrol about 6:45 p.m. Sheriff Ron Pierini of Douglas County said
          Bono skied into a wooded area and hit a tree.

          The sheriff said Bono died of massive head injuries. There was no evidence of drug or alcohol use,
          he said.

          Bono's death came less than a week after Michael Kennedy, the 39-year-old son of Robert F.
          Kennedy, was killed when he hit a tree while playing football on a ski slope in Aspen, Colo. Michael
          Kennedy's uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said his family was "heartbroken" at Bono's
          death.

          Similarly, President Clinton echoed what many lawmakers, Democrats as well as Republicans, said
          about Bono. "His joyful entertainment of millions earned him celebrity, but in Washington he earned
          respect by being a witty and wise participant in policy-making processes that often seemed
          ponderous to the American people," Clinton said.

          Bono almost prided himself on never being taken, or taking himself, very seriously -- either in his
          successful entertainment career, as part of the team Sonny and Cher, in the 1960s and 70s, or in his
          recent political career. He once admitted that he had never voted until he was 53 years of age, when
          he contemplated running for mayor of Palm Springs, a desert resort city of more than 40,000 people,
          out of anger and frustration over the red tape he faced when he wanted to put a sign on his Italian
          restaurant.

          Bono was elected mayor in 1988 and served until 1992, when he ran unsuccessfully in the California
          Republican primary for a seat in the U.S. Senate that was eventually won by Dianne Feinstein, a
          Democrat. But he bounced back in 1994, winning his congressional seat in the Republican tide that
          wrested control of the House from the Democrats for the first time in 40 years.

          Bono, who represented the state's 44th Congressional District -- a heavily Republican area that
          sprawls across the desert in Southern California -- defeated his Democratic opponent, Steve Clute,
          by 56 percent to 38 percent, and was re-elected in 1996.

          "The last thing in the world I thought I would be is a U.S. congressman, given all the bobcat vests and
          Eskimo boots I used to wear," Bono told the Washington Press Club Foundation shortly after taking
          office in January 1995.

          "I love this game," he joked to the group. "I am so pleased that we are all so dedicated to mankind --
          unlike show business, where there you have egomaniacs and you have power mongers and you have
          elitists."

          It was Bono's self-deprecating style (he was the second most popular Republican fund-raiser behind
          House Speaker Newt Gingrich), and his casual bluntness that made him especially popular. At a
          Judiciary Committee session on the crime bill in 1995, Bono interrupted a colleague and complained
          that all they did was talk, talk, talk.

          "With all due respect to lawyers, it's wonderful that you have this intricate knowledge," he said. "You
          break down words to the nth degree. And sometimes I find it rather disgusting. And it goes on and
          on."

          Bono almost took pride in his lack of qualifications for Congress. "What is qualified?" he told The
          Los Angeles Times in 1992. "What have I been qualified for in my life? I haven't been qualified to be
          a mayor. I'm not qualified to be a songwriter. I'm not qualified to be a TV producer. I'm not qualified
          to be a successful businessman. And so, I don't know what qualified means."

          At other times, Bono was even more blunt. "People underestimate me, but I've always been a stretch
          runner," he once told The Washington Post. "If people would take a look -- and I don't mean this
          arrogantly -- if they would take a look at what I've done in my life, you can't be a dummy and have
          the achievements I've had in my lifetime."

          In Congress, Bono generally adhered to a conservative agenda, and focused on such issues as the
          environment, immigration and copyright questions. But unlike many of his conservative allies, Bono
          seemed to go out of his way to befriend stalwart liberals like Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. The two
          split over the issue of same-sex marriage in 1996, but Frank praised Bono for his candor and
          decency.

          At the time Bono said he loved his daughter, Chastity Bono, a lesbian activist, and respected gay
          people, but could not accept the notion of gay marriage. "I'm not homophobic, I'm not a bigot, I'm
          not pandering to hatred," he said. "I simply can't handle it. It's nothing else."

          Bono was born Salvatore Bono in Detroit on Feb. 16, 1935. His parents were impoverished Sicilian
          immigrants who moved to Los Angeles when he was 7. A poor student, Sonny Bono dropped out of
          high school and struggled to write songs while working as a waiter, a construction worker, a truck
          driver and a butcher's helper.

          In his 20s he immersed himself in the music business as aa songwriter and singer with Specialty
          Records, where he worked with Sam Cooke and Little Richard. Soon he teamed up with the
          legendary record producer Phil Specter, where he wrote songs ("You Bug Me, Baby," and "Needles
          and Pins") and sang background for groups like the Righteous Brothers.

          The turning point of his career took place when a sloe-eyed and exotically beautiful 16-year-old
          named Cherilyn Sarkisian, who called herself Cher, drifted into his life. "She wanted to be an
          entertainer more than I've seen anybody want to be an entertainer in my life," he once said.

          The team -- she was a long-haired beauty; he was short, nasal and bumbling -- made several
          modestly successful recordings ("Baby, Don't Go," "Just You") before creating a giant hit in June
          1965 with "I Got You, Babe," which Sonny had written as an expression of their feelings for each
          other.

          Bono divorced his first wife, Donna, shortly after he met Cher, but the two were not married until
          years later, after the birth of their daughter, Chastity. Bono also had a daughter, Christy, with his first
          wife, Donna Rankin.

          It was a guest spot on the Merv Griffin Show that convinced Fred Silverman, the head of CBS
          programming, to turn the bickering, irreverent and outrageously clad musical and comedy team into
          television stars.

          "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour," began as a five-week summer replacement series in August
          1971. They were an immediate hit. Cher wore sequined and spectacular Bob Mackie outfits and was
          known for her sharp-tongued wit. He wore bell bottoms, had a droopy mustache and played the fall
          man. The show lasted until 1974, when the couple split up in a blaze of tabloid headlines over
          extramarital affairs. (Cher got the 54-room mansion, half the royalties for the duo's hits and had to
          pay him $750,000. Bono got a 32-room mansion.)

          Their solo television efforts floundered, as well as an attempt to revive the partnership on television in
          1976-77. Bono virtually dropped out of show business after that, except for a few guest spots on
          shows like "Fantasy Island" and "The Love Boat." He went into the restaurant business in Palm
          Springs, while Cher's film career flourished for awhile.

          After his marriage to Cher, Bono was married to Susie Coehlo; that marriage ended in divorce in
          1984.

          Bono met his fourth wife, Mary Whitaker, in 1985, when she walked into a restaurant he owned on
          Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles to celebrate her graduation from the University of Southern
          California. They were married a year later.

          Shortly after he became a congressman, Bono acknowledged that he was overwhelmed that a poor
          boy from Detroit could attain fame and fortune and also serve in the House of Representatives.
          Asked how he would like people to think of him, Bono replied:

          "As someone who is his own man, a maverick and really a person of substance like other people.
          Not necessarily the brilliant person, but recognize that there is substance there, you know."