Rosemary Clooney, the Tristate's first lady of popular song, is among the 2002 recipients of the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.

        Ms. Clooney, a native of Maysville who launched her career with her late sister, Betty, on WLW radio, is being honored along with big band great Count Basie, crooner Perry Como, quintessential soul man Al Green and innovative singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell.

        Pioneering DJ Alan Freed, who helped launch rock 'n' roll radio while broadcasting in Cleveland, and producer/engineer Tom Dowd will receive Lifetime Achievement Grammys in the non-performer category.

        Bridging the gap between jazz and pop for more than half a century, Ms. Clooney continues a busy schedule of concerts and personal appearances.

        After her start on WLW, chronicled in her recent autobiography, Girl Singer (Broadway Books; $14.95 paperback), she launched a solo career with Columbia Records, scoring a huge national hit in 1951 with “Come On-a My House.”

        While she scored with such novelty material and dabbled in country songs (“Beautiful Brown Eyes”) she also collaborated with jazz greats Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. But she's best known for her film role opposite Bing Crosby in 1954's White Christmas. In 1999, her hit recording of “Hey There” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

        Mr. Freed, who began his Cleveland radio career playing light classical music, is best-known for popularizing the term “rock 'n' roll” and helping to create the methods of promoting what was considered just a teen craze.

        He's credited for bringing rock 'n' roll to Broadway in 1957 with the history-making package show at the Paramount. He also hosted the first national rock 'n' roll radio broadcasts and starred in early rock movies, including Rock Around the Clock.

        Continuing the Ohio connection, Mr. Como was a barber in Western Pennsylvania before a trip to Lorain, Ohio, and an audition with Freddy Carlone's dance band led to a successful career as a singer. His hits included “Catch a Falling Star,” which won the best male vocal Grammy at the first Grammy ceremonies in 1959. His “Til the End of Time” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

        Sweet-voiced soul singer Al Green started his career in gospel and took a detour there in 1979, after a serious fall during a concert at Cincinnati's now-defunct Palace convinced him the Lord didn't want him singing secular music.

        In the '90s, he returned to secular soul, singing the classics he made famous while recording for the Memphis label Hi Records with famed producer Willie Mitchell.

        The nine-time Grammy winner's list of hits include “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let's Stay Together,” “I'm Still In Love With You” and “Take Me to the River.” “Let's Stay Together” is a 1999 inductee into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

        Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded some of the most enduring songs of the late '60s and early '70s, including “Circle Game,” “Chelsea Morning,” “Both Sides Now,” “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Woodstock.” Her music sprang from '60s folk music but went on to incorporate world beat and jazz, including collaborations with Charles Mingus.

        She also paved the way for female artists, producing her albums and even painting the cover art. Her masterpiece, Blue, is a 1999 inductee into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

        Mr. Dowd started out as a nuclear physics prodigy with the Manhattan Project before the horrors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima turned him toward a career in recording music. A pioneer in developing stereo sound, he was a staff producer/engineer with Atlantic Records. There, he worked with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Diana Ross, John Coltrane, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He produced the Allman Brothers' Live at the Fillmore East, one of rock's all-time best live albums.

        The nominees for the rest of the 2002 Grammy Awards will be announced Jan. 4. The winners will be announced Feb. 27 at ceremonies in Los Angeles, broadcast on Channels 12 and 7, the local CBS affiliates.

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