ISAAC HAYES - HAYES DENIED AIRPORT TRIBUTE

HAYES DENIED AIRPORT TRIBUTE

LATEST: Plans to name an airport after late musician ISAAC HAYES in his native Memphis, Tennessee have been denied - because officials don't want to single him out for praise.
Hayes was honoured in the state capital on Monday (18Aug08) in a four-hour ceremony attended by more than 3,000 fans.
U.S. Representative Steve Cohen used the event to call for the city's airport to be renamed in honour of the soul legend.
But according to the city's local newspaper The Commercial Appeal, Memphis International Airport board chairman Arnold Perl and other officials have vetoed the move.
Perl says: "Isaac Hayes was one of the many great Memphis musicians and a great ambassador for Memphis. We've been fortunate he's passed through our lives. It's always been believed that the name Memphis International Airport best serves our needs.
"Isaac Hayes was a great ambassador for Memphis music. We'd also have to acknowledge that Memphis has many individuals who have made lasting contributions."
Airport authority president and CEO Larry Cox agrees, noting the board has repeatedly snubbed suggestions to rename the hub to Elvis Presley Memphis International Airport.
Cox adds: "It surfaces every year around the anniversary of his birth or his death. We get some very nice petitions. We get a lot of e-mails. They're all very sincere. If he was the only famous person we had in the community who did great things, I think it would be a wonderful idea."
But Cohen hasn't given up on his campaign - he announced plans to write to the Airport Authority on Tuesday (19Aug08) to formally address his plea for the name change.
Hayes was 65 when he collapsed and died at his home on 10 August (08).