To guitar aficionados and rock 'n' roll enthusiasts, Chuck Berry is a pioneer -- his countryfied blues leads, boogie-woogie rhythms, teenage anthems and duck-walking stage antics from the mid-1950s through the '60s made him the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's first member.

But 50 years ago today, one Berry-related headline was about something less stellar. In a Roanoke County courtroom, a judge convicted Berry in absentia on a peeping Tom charge.

According to The Roanoke Times' afternoon edition on Aug. 15, 1958, Berry had been arrested on Aug. 10 and charged with peeping into the women's restroom at Lakeside Amusement Park. After posting bail, Berry was long gone from the Roanoke Valley by the time the case came to Judge Norman Moore, who sentenced him to 60 days in jail, to be served should he ever return to the county.

By then, Berry had been on the charts for about three years, crossing over from the R&B charts to the pops, with songs such as "Maybelline," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Johnny B. Goode." Still, the incident played as a brief in the newspaper. It is never mentioned in contemporary histories or major newspaper articles.

His arrest at Lakeside has also faded from local public memory. One member of the family that owned Lakeside declined to discuss the matter. Others simply don't remember. The arresting officer, James Underwood, has died, said some who remember the case.

But it clearly presaged a legal storm Berry would face in 1990, when he was sued by women who claimed that he had hidden video cameras in the bathrooms of a restaurant and other property he owned in the St. Louis area. Berry settled out of court. In a 1990 police raid, police had found videotapes shot from those restrooms, and in a plea agreement, Berry was convicted of marijuana possession and received a suspended sentence.

Berry, whose only No. 1 hit came in 1972 with the novelty tune, "My Ding-A-Ling," did return to the area for a concert in the 1970s, at Roanoke Civic Center in 1979, according to the Web site of onetime Roanoke disc jockey Pat Garrett.

Chris Gladden, a contributor to The Roanoke Times, was at the show and said he spoke briefly to Berry afterward. As was his custom, Berry had used a pickup band. In this case, the father of a young local musician had paid Berry to use his son's garage band, Gladden said.

"Chuck was great to see, but the show was terrible because these guys couldn't keep up with him," Gladden said.

On the Net: chuckberry.com; britannica.com/blackhistory/article-9078885; robertchristgau.com/xg/music/berry-76.php