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Derek & the Dominos founder Bobby Whitlock has died, TMZ can confirm.

His "heartbroken" manager Carol Kaye tells us he passed Sunday morning at 1:20 AM "after a brief illness." He took his last breath at home in Texas, surrounded by family. Getty

His family is currently working to pinpoint a charity fans can send donations to in his honor, Kaye says.

His wife, Coco Carmel Whitlock , honored his rise from rags to riches in a statement to TMZ, asking ... "How do you express in but a few words the grandness of one man who came from abject poverty in the south to heights unimagined in such a short time?"

She adds ... "My love Bobby looked at life as an adventure taking me by the hand leading me through a world of wonderment from music to poetry an

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