Nancy Wilson, a three-time Grammy-winning artist who called herself a “song stylist,” has died at the age of 81. Her manager Devra Hall confirmed that her death came after a battle with a long illness.
Wilson was known for not aligning herself with one specific genre. “I don’t put labels on it, I just sing,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1993. “It’s all in the ear of the listener. Let them decide. I have a gift for telling stories, making them seem larger than life,” she added. “I love the vignette, the plays within the song.”
The vocalist from Chillicothe, Ohio, made her debut with her 1961’s single ‘Guess Who I Saw Today.’
Her biggest hit came in 1964 with ‘(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am,’ which rose through the charts to the #11 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles and earned her a Grammy Award for best R&B recording.
Outside of music, Nancy was a lifelong advocate of civil rights, which included marching in the 1965 protest in Selma, Ala., she received an award from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1993, and an N.A.A.C.P. Hall of Fame Image Award in 1998.
