ARCADIA, Calif., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Pedro Knight, lead trumpet player for Cuba's La Sonora Matancera band and husband of "Queen of Salsa" Celia Cruz, died at 85 in an Arcadia, Calif., hospital.
A cause of death was not given, but Knight had been suffering from complications of diabetes and experienced several strokes last year, the Los Angeles Times said Tuesday.
Knight and Cruz met in Havana in 1950 when she replaced the lead singer in La Sonora Matancera. They married in 1962, two years after fleeing Cuba in the aftermath of Fidel Castro's rise to power.
Knight became Cruz's musical director in the late 1960s.
The Grammy Award winning Cruz died of a brain tumor in 2003.
After Cruz's death, Knight moved to the Los Angeles-area home of close family friend Luis Falcon. Falcon, as co-executor of Cruz' estate, recently was subject of a lawsuit that accused him of spending money intended for Knight.
Knight and Cruz did not have children together, but Knight had children before his marriage to Cruz.
Knight, who died Saturday, is survived by five children.
