Grammy Award winning jazz singer Nancy Wilson has died. She was 81.
Wilson’s manager and publicist, Devra Hall Levy, told The Associated Press on Thursday evening that she passed away peacefully at her home in Pioneertown, California — outside San Bernardino — after a long illness.
Wilson was born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1937.
During her five-decade career, she recorded dozens of albums, won three Grammy Awards and an NAACP Image Award. She retired from touring in 2011.
Wilson was best known for such songs as Guess Who I Saw Today and (You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am.
She also had an acting career and appeared on Hawaii Five-O, The Sinbad Show and in the 1993 Robert Townsend film Meteor Man.
Wilson was active in the civil rights movement, and marched in Selma in 1965.
She is survived by her son, Kacy Dennis; daughters Samantha Burton and Cheryl Burton; sisters Karen Davis and Brenda Vann and five grandchildren.
