Freddy Fender, the "Bebop Kid" of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," died yesterday. He was 69. Fender, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2006, died at noon at his Corpus Christi, Texas, home with his family at his bedside, said Ron Rogers, a family spokesman. More...