Officer Funeral Home

LOUIS • If you never heard Richard “Onion” Horton’s angry voice on the air waves in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, then you were either not black or not paying attention.Mr. Horton, a fierce African-American radio personality, didn’t mince words about race. He railed against both the white and black establishments, including entrenched politicians and comfortable clergy.“Onion Horton was the voice of information and raw truth for the black community,” said Eric Vickers, 63, who organized the shut-down of Interstate 70 in 1999 to get more minority contracts and jobs. “Onion was always pumping the different protests we had. He was quite an advocate. Onion was one of a kind.”Friends said his mind had been deteriorating in more recent years. His voice was noticeably absent from the Black Lives Matter movement and other protests after the shooting of Michael Brown.Mr. Horton died Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24, 2106) of Alzheimer’s disease, family said. He was 80.“He was the Muhammad Ali of radio,” said Janice Bratcher, 67, of Jennings, who grew up listening to him. “Anytime you wanted to hear somebody tell you like it is, you listened to his radio station. Those days, we did listen to a lot of radio.”Mr. Horton started out writing about sports for the St. Louis American newspaper and transitioned to radio, including air time at KMOX, KKSS, KATZ, WESL and WGNU 920 AM, where he hosted a popular morning show for about 10 years, starting in 1985, according to the American.Early on, he didn’t last long as a sports commentator with KMOX, said Bernie Hayes, 81, who created the first African-American talk radio show in St. Louis in 1979.“He was so militant or controversial, KMOX would say, that they paid him to stay off the radio,” Hayes said of Mr. Horton’s contract. “He would talk about racism at the University of Missouri and in other major universities.”Hayes said Mr. Horton then became a regular caller to the “Bernie Hayes Show” on KATZ 1600 AM and went on to other programs. Like many radio personalities, much of the content was about the person delivering it.“It was like an ego ...