Sir George Albert Shearing, Order of the British Empire, was born August 13, 1919 in Battersea, London, England, and died of heart failure on February 14, 2011, age 91.

He was born blind, began learning piano at age 3, and received only 4 years of music training at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind. He received two Grammy awards, several honorary degrees of Doctor of Music, and two Lifetime Achievement Honors. He was knighted in 2007. He was a truly prolific musician; his discography includes almost 100 recordings as band leader, plus another dozen as a sideman.