| LC control no. | no 97033626 |
|---|---|
| Descriptive conventions | rda |
| Personal name heading | Liston, Sonny, 1932-1970 |
| Variant(s) | Liston, Charles Sonny, 1932-1970 |
| Associated country | United States |
| Birth date | 19320508 |
| Death date | 19701230 |
| Place of birth | Saint Francis County (Ark.) |
| Place of death | Las Vegas (Nev.) |
| Field of activity | Boxing |
| Affiliation | Missouri State Penitentiary |
| Profession or occupation | Boxers (Sports) |
| Found in | Sonny boy, 1993: t.p. (Sonny Liston) p. 1, etc. (African American heavyweight boxing champion; b. Charles Liston in Arkansas on either Jan. 18, 1932, July 22, 1927, May 8, 1932 or May 8, 1917; d. ca. Dec. 28, 1970; called Charles "Sonny" Liston or Sonny Liston; grave marker says Charles "Sonny" Liston, 1932-1970) Encyc. Brit, 1993 (Liston, Sonny, byname of Charles Liston, born May 8, 1917?, died Dec. 31?, 1970; Liston gave b.d. as 1932) African American National Biography, accessed February 19, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database: (Liston, Sonny; Charles Liston; boxer; born 08 May 1932 in St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States; moved to St. Louis, Missouri (1946); was sentenced to five years in the Missouri State Penitentiary (1950); in prison the Catholic chaplain encouraged him to box; was paroled, due to the efforts of a Catholic priest and Frank Mitchell, the publisher of the newspaper "St. Louis Argus" (1952); worked for the leading mobster in St. Louis as a "head breaker"; defeated a string of amateur opponents, among them Ed Sanders, the 1952 Olympic heavyweight champion; became a professional boxer (1953); moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was managed by Frankie Carbo (1958) and earned the right to challenge the world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson; he defeated him but did not receive the adulation that other heavyweights champions had enjoyed; he lost the crown to his young challenger Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) (1964-1965); continued to box after that defeat; the boxing world recognized his singular contribution in the ring by inducting him into its International Hall of Fame (1991); died 30 December 1970 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States) |
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