Ravi Shankar passed away in December before he could attend The Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards celebration where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award. But the 91-year-old sitar master, Indian music promoter and friend to The Beatles got the call a few days before he passed away, and that meant everything to his family.

Neil Armstrong would always be taking that first step onto the moon, and Dick Clark was forever "the world's oldest teenager." Some of the notables who died in 2012 created images in our minds that remained unchanged over decades.
Hundreds of friends and family on Thursday remembered sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar as an unfailingly generous teacher with a gentle spirit and sense of humor whose music fostered understanding between East and West.

World-famous musician Ravi Shankar will be remembered Thursday at a public memorial service in San Diego County.
Hundreds of friends and family have paid tribute to sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar at a public memorial service near his San Diego-area home.
World-famous musician Ravi Shankar will be remembered Thursday at a public memorial service in San Diego County.
The walls of Sanjay Sharma's music shop are lined with gleaming string instruments and old photographs of legendary musicians.
The walls of Sanjay Sharma's music shop are lined with gleaming string instruments and old photographs of legendary musicians.
Ravi Shankar was the master of the sitar _ the sitar that Sanjay Sharma made.