Overview
- Her family said she died Sunday, Nov. 2, at a hospice in Nashville after a lengthy struggle with cancer, a statement confirmed by representative Dennis McNally.
- She became the band’s only full-time female vocalist, joining in 1971 with her husband, keyboardist Keith Godchaux, and performing through 1979.
- Her voice features on Europe ’72, Wake of the Flood and Terrapin Station, and on famed live recordings including Cornell ’77 and the Dead’s 1978 shows at Egypt’s Giza pyramids.
- Before joining the band, the Florence, Alabama native was a sought-after Muscle Shoals session singer on hits like Percy Sledge’s When a Man Loves a Woman and Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds.
- She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Grateful Dead in 1994 and is survived by husband David MacKay, sons Kinsman MacKay and Zion Godchaux, grandson Delta, sister Gogi Clark and brother Ivan Thatcher.