Grateful Dead Vocalist Was 78

Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, a vocalist for the Grateful Dead during the Nineteen Seventies and backup singer for Elvis Presley and Percy Sledge, has died at the age of 78.

Godchaux-MacKay handed away on Sunday after a prolonged battle with cancer, according to a press release. She died at Alive Hospice in Nashville. “She was a sweet and warmly beautiful spirit, and all those who knew her are united in loss,” the assertion reads. “The family requests privacy at this time of grieving. In the words of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, ‘May the four winds blow her safely home.’”

The singer was best recognized for her tenure with the Grateful Dead from 1971 to 1979, showing on albums including “Wake From the Flood” and “What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been.” In addition to her tenure in teams including Keith and Donna Godchaux and the Heart of Gold Band, she carried out on hits including Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” and also appeared on information from Cher, Boz Scaggs and Bob Weir.

Born Donna Jean Thatcher in Florence, Alabama, Godchaux-MacKay labored as a session singer in Muscle Shoals before shifting to California in 1970 the place she married pianist Keith Godchaux. Following her stint in the Grateful Dead, her husband Keith died in an accident, resulting in a short lived hiatus from music. She launched albums as a part of the Ghosts and the Heart of Gold Band in the Eighties, and married bassist David MacKay, shifting again to Florence to document at Muscle Shoals. Throughout the following many years, she put out music with the Donna Jean Band and Donna Jean and the Tricksters.

Godchaux-MacKay is survived by her husband David, her son Kinsman MacKay and his spouse Molly, her son (*78*) Godchaux and his son Delta, her sister Gogi Clark, and her brother Ivan Thatcher.

More to come back…