NANCY WILSON, a legendary jazz singer and Grammy winner known for songs such as Love Won’t Let Me Wait, If I Had My Way and How Glad I Am, has passed away at the age of 81, her manager has confirmed.
Nancy Wilson, also known as “Sweet Nancy” and “The Girl With The Honey-Coated Voice” has died aged 81.
She passed away on Thursday night at her home in Pioneertown, a town near Joshua Tree National Park in California, her publicist Devra Hall Levy confirmed.
However, she did not consider herself to be a jazz singer, but instead thought of herself as an “interpreter” of lyrics.
“The music that I sing today was the pop music of the 1960s,” she told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2010.
“I just never considered myself a jazz singer. I do not do runs and — you know. I take a lyric and make it mine. I consider myself an interpreter of the lyric.”
Nancy also worked in television, film and radio, her credits include: Hawaii Five-O, Police Story, the Robert Townshend spoof Meteor Man and years hosting NPR’s Jazz Profiles series.
She also played a role in the civil rights movement, including the 1965 Selma march and received an NAACP Image Award in 1998.
Born in Chillcote, Ohio, the eldest of six children, Nancy began singing at the tender age of four.
Her first album, Like in Love!, was released in 1959, and she covered Beatles songs, Stevie Wonder’s Uptight (Everything’s Alright) and Son of a Preacher Man.
The late star was married twice — to drummer Kenny Dennis, whom she divorced in 1970, and to Wiley Burton, who died in 2008.
She is survived by her son, Kacy Dennis; daughters Samantha Burton and Cheryl Burton; sisters Karen Davis and Brenda Vann and five grandchildren.
Article sourced from celebrity news – Express
