LaMonte McLemore, a founding member of The 5th Dimension and a longtime celebrity and sports photographer whose images graced magazines including Jet, Ebony and Harper’s Bazaar, has died. He was 90.
McLemore died Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Las Vegas, a publicist announced. He suffered a stroke several years ago.
With The 5th Dimension alongside Florence LaRue, Ron Townson and married couple Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo, McLemore helped bring a polished, genre-blending sound to American pop and soul in the late 1960s and early ’70s on such hits as “Up, Up and Away” and “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.”
The group won the Grammy for record of the year twice — for “Up, Up and Away” in 1968 and for “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)” in 1970. The latter topped the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks in spring 1969, becoming one of the signature recordings of its generation.
The group’s other hits included another No. 1 song, “Wedding Bell Blues,” Laura Nyro’s “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Go Where You Wanna Go,” “One Less Bell to Answer” and “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All.” Along the way, they created seven Gold albums and six Platinum RIAA-certified singles.
McLemore was known for the warm bass vocals and easygoing presence that helped anchor the group’s sophisticated harmonies and modern pop sensibility.
“Proverbs 17:22 states that ‘A joyful heart is good medicine … ’ Well, LaMonte really knew my prescription!” LaRue said in a statement. “His cheerfulness and laughter often brought strength and refreshment to me in difficult times. We were more like brother and sister than singing partners.
“I didn’t realize the depth of my love for LaMonte until he was no longer here. His absence has shown me the magnitude of what he meant to me and that love will stay in my heart forever.”
Born on Sept. 17, 1935, in St. Louis — where Davis was a childhood friend — Herman Lamonte McLemore enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he trained and worked as an aerial photographer. He later pursued professional baseball as a pitcher in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm system before settling in Southern California and turning his attention to music and photography.
It was through a photo shoot at the Miss Black Beauty Pageant in the mid-1960s that he first met McCoo and LaRue, and in late 1965, McLemore co-founded The Versatiles, who became The 5th Dimension a year later.
The group went on to appear on just about every TV variety show of the era and toured internationally, including a 1973 U.S. State Department cultural excursion that brought American pop behind the Iron Curtain.
Outside the recording studio, McLemore built a distinguished reputation as a photographer, with work spanning entertainment, sports and editorial portraiture. His images captured many of the defining figures of 20th century popular culture, and he contributed to Jet and Ebony for decades and to Playboy and People as well.
“Lamonte loved music and was always so generous, making his photography studio available to us in our early years before the hits started,” McCoo said.
Music from The 5th Dimension was featured in Questlove’s 2021 Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul (… Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.
McLemore reflected on his career when he co-authored with Robert-Allan Arno the 2014 autobiography From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension: A Life Fulfilled in Baseball, Photography, and Music.
Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Mieko; his daughter, Ciara; his adopted son, Darin; his sister, Joan; and three grandchildren.
“All in all, we are only in this world to help one another,” McLemore said. “If I can make you smile, if I can see the greatness in others and help propel them to excellence, I wake up each day a happy man.”
