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Odetta: December 31, 1930 - December 2, 2008
 Odetta |
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an African-American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist. Often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement," she died Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at age 77.
Her musical repertoire consists largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and '60s, she was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte and Janis Joplin.
Although she was struggling with heart disease and various health ailments, Odetta never stopped performing, playing 60 concerts in the last two years of her life. In Summer 2008, at the age of 77, she launched another national tour, singing strongly and confidently from a wheelchair. Her set in recent years included "This Little Light of Mine (I'm Gonna Let It Shine)," Lead Belly's "The Bourgeois Blues," "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" and "House of the Rising Sun".
She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, grew up in Los Angeles, California, and studied music at Los Angeles City College. Having operatic training from the age of 13, her first professional experience was in musical theater in 1944, as an ensemble member for four years with the Hollywood Turnabout Puppet Theatre, working alongside Elsa Lanchester; she later joined the national touring company of the musical Finian's Rainbow in 1949.
A solo career followed, with Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues (1956) and At the Gate of Horn (1957). Odetta Sings Folk Songs was one of 1963's best-selling folk albums.
In 1961, Martin Luther King, Jr. anointed her "The Queen of American folk music." Active in the civil rights movement, she sang at the March on Washington in August 1963, and was nominated for a Grammy the same year for Best Folk Recording. Her most recent Grammy nomination was for 2005's Gonna Let It Shine.
Odetta was slated to sing at the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, though she hadn't been officially invited. The singer leaves behind a daughter and son, and a memorial service is planned in her honor for next month.
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