Leon Rhodes Austin, a popular Augusta musician and one of the last major links to James Brown's early life, died this morning from medical complications at his home in Augusta. He was 74.

Funeral arrangements are being made by C.A. Reid Sr. Memorial Funeral Home, who also handled the arrangements for Mr. Brown's three funerals.

His local survivors include his wife of 42 years, Emma McBowman Austin; his son, Patrick Austin; his daughter, Myra White; and his brothers, James Wiggins and Ernest Rhodes. He has other brothers and sisters in other states.

His last public appearance was May 30 at the Marriott Hotel on Reynolds Street for a reunion of Lucy C. Laney High School students. Mr. Austin was an outstanding football and basketball player for the school in the 1950s.

He took pride in recent months of showing a scrapbook of Augusta Chronicle articles that reported games in which he was a stand-out.

In the 1960s in heavily segregated Augusta, one of the most popular bands to play upscale white social events was Leon Austin and the Buicks.

"He used to tell me that God gave him favor with man," Mrs. Austin said Thursday. "There was something about Leon's smile and the way he spoke to you so gentlemanly and so kind-heartedly that people were able to look past his skin and think, 'This is a nice man, a really nice man.'

"He always wanted to present himself well and always was nice mannered," she added. "He always said, 'Respect will take you places where money and fame can't.'"

Throughout the '80s, he owned Leon's DeSoto Club on Ninth Street (now James Brown Boulevard) near Laney-Walker Boulevard where his famous friend often would pop in to play with the band.

Although his musical talents were over-shadowed by his world famous best friend, Mr. Austin rarely was less than a few feet away from James Brown throughout the past 35 years whenever Mr. Brown was being honored in the Augusta area or holding rehearsals in the Imperial Theatre.

At Mr. Brown's funeral in James Brown Arena on Dec. 30, 2006, Mr. Austin and his wife were seated on the front row with the Brown family.

The two had known each other since the third grade at Silas X. Floyd Elementary School, and Mr. Brown often would go to Austin's home on Wrightsboro Road where the Austin family had a piano.

Mr. Brown always told reporters it was Leon Austin who taught him to play piano with both his right and left hands.

"We were like brothers," Mr. Austin said in December 2006 after Mr. Brown's death. "His children call me Uncle Leon. James was left-handed,

and I helped him form [piano] chords with his right hand. . . . I opened up a lot of shows for him. I'll really miss my old buddy. We were very tight for many years."

Mr. Austin himself, by the age of 10, was playing for a youth group called The Mello-Tones. He later organized his own gospel group, The Swanee Juniors, named after The Swanee Quintet.

It is said to have been Mr. Austin, as an adult, who urged the world-famous Swanee Quintet to add a bass guitar to their rhythm section, which was unheard of at that time for a gospel music group.

Later, Mr. Austin traveled with such well known gospel acts as Pastor James Cleveland, Sister Pope and the Pearly Gates and also The Caravans which included Shirley Caesar.

Besides his music, Mr. Austin became a master barber/hair stylist at Voohees Technical College and owned and operated Leon's Barber and Beauty Shop on Ninth Street for many years.

For almost 20 years off and on, Mr. Austin was the one who maintained the famous hairstyle of his friend, Mr. Brown, before stage and other media appearances.

And, as member of the James Brown Enterprises musical staff, Mr. Austin recorded such singles as I'm a Man, Real Woman, Georgia Peach and Lovin' You. He also sang background vocals for the Godfather of Soul, and did some musical arrangements for his band.