Ray Charles' manager donated several items of memorabilia from the soul music pioneer Wednesday to the permanent collection the Smithsonian Institute.
Joe Adams, Charles' manager for more than 45 years and president of Ray Charles Enterprises, donated a pair of the singer's Ray-Ban sunglasses, a Braille Yamaha keyboard, a specially designed chess set and a gold-sequined jacket, among other things.
The collection will be on display beginning Oct. 28 at the American History Museum. The Smithsonian donation came a month after Charles, who would have turned 75 Friday, had a post office named in his honor just a few blocks away from the site of his Los Angeles studios where scenes for the autobiographical film "Ray" were shot.
