MONTREAL -- Roger Doucet, famous for his powerful singing of 'O Canada' at games of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, died Sunday after being comatose for six days. He was 62.
Doucet had been in Montreal General Hospital since June. He had shown fatigue and weakness after an operation in April for removal of a cancerous brain tumor.
The singer died with his wife Geraldine at his side between 9 p.m and 10 p.m. Sunday night, Doucet's son Peter said.
The hospital and Doucet's family declined to give further details of the singer's death.
Mrs. Doucet has remained at her husband's bedside during the ordeal but has been comforted by a stream of friends and neighbours, including Montreal Canadiens' hockey personalities Guy Lafleur and Jean Believeau said Peter.
She had been fulfilling Doucet's singing engagements at the Montreal Forum for the Canadiens and at the Olympic Stadium for the Montreal Alouettes.
In May 1978 Doucet, a former nightclub entertainer, stirred national controversy when he introduced a rights and liberty version of the national anthem.
