Louis McCall knew the excitement of performing before thousands of dancing fans and selling albums that were part of the soundtrack for a generation.

Leaving that life proved too difficult. Within a decade of his departure from the band Con Funk Shun, McCall was killed at a DeKalb County apartment complex where he may have been buying drugs.

Photo courtesy of Linda Lou McCall (ENLARGE)

Louis McCall, drummer and founder of popular funk band Con Funk Shun, was killed in DeKalb County on June 25, 1997.

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That was 11 years ago.

Today, a trial is scheduled to begin for a man accused of killing him. Marques Clair, now 29, was arrested as a suspect in McCall's slaying in 1999, but prosecutors dropped the charge. A new effort produced an indictment against him last year.

The lull in the case took its toll on Linda Lou McCall. She came to the Atlanta area with her husband in 1994 and remained after his death, working in the music business and urging police and prosecutors and even the governor's office to keep the case alive. She has lupus, and she said friends urged her to consider her battle won when a trial finally was scheduled.

She said she resolved to calmly await the verdict, in part because McCall would not want his wife and their two children, both now adults, to hate the defendant.

"We just want it to be over with. All we wanted was justice. And justice does not necessarily mean a conviction. Justice means justice for all, and that also means Marques Clair. If he's acquitted, he's acquitted. ... You can't start healing until the justice process is over," she said.

Michael Cooper and Louis McCall both played drums in their junior high school band in the 1960s. When they got to Vallejo (Calif.) High School, they started a band they called Project Soul. By 1975, they had a recording contract leading Con Funk Shun.

"He was a wonderful guy," Cooper said. "He was always very business, very soft spoken, very articulate and very dedicated to the music and getting things done. He was an all-around funny guy."

On hits like "Ffun, Ffun, Ffun" and "Shake and Dance With Me," the band featured smooth vocals led by Cooper and horns similar to the sound of Earth, Wind and Fire, backed by precise but unobtrusive drum work by McCall.

Cooper said the band's musicians were not spectacular apart, "but as a unit when we came together we managed to create the impression we were the best thing since sliced bread."

The California-based Cooper and a reconstituted Con Funk Shun still perform regularly. Coincidentally, they were scheduled to appear Saturday at the annual DeKalb Blues and Jazz Festival.

Cooper said the band dedicates all its concerts to McCall. He planned to mention the upcoming trial at the Saturday performance.

Hard time adjusting

Linda Lou McCall said her husband, like many pop stars, had a hard time adjusting to a music career out of the limelight.

"Years and years of coming onto a stage with 20,000 people screaming — it gives you a high," she said. "He started into the drug scene, and that is why we were not together at the time he died."

A man walking his dog at the Village Square Apartments near Stone Mountain found McCall's body on June 25, 1997. He had been shot in the back and head.

Court filings say McCall was robbed of drugs and money. Linda Lou McCall said she suspects the robbers actually intended to rob an acquaintance of McCall's who she believes was a drug dealer. "Louis wasn't a dealer," she said.

A court transcript shows Clair's lawyer, public defender Claudia Saari, told a judge last year the only new evidence is the statement of a co-defendant. She said the co-defendant earlier had been regarded by police as the killer.

Linda Lou McCall said she would have preferred to see both defendants tried. But she said no outcome could bring back her husband, so she will focus instead on their children.

Their daughter is a police officer who recently moved from Gwinnett County to the force in Paradise Valley, Ariz. Their son sells luxury real estate in Atlanta.

"He was such a fantastic father," she said. "I mean he really loved those kids and they really loved him."