Lamonte McLemore, Founding Member of The 5th Dimension, Dies at 90

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.