"Rescue Me" Singer Fontella Bass Dead At 72 (VIDEO)

The St. Louis-born soul singer who bellowed out the famous “Rescue Me” ballad of 1965 has died at the age of 72.

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Fontella Bass passed away on Wednesday night at a St. Louis hospice due to complications from a heart attack she suffered three weeks prior. According to her daughter, Neuka Mitchell, she had also suffered a number of strokes in the past seven years.

“She was an outgoing person,” Mitchell said of her mother. “She had a very big personality. Any room she entered she just lit the room up, whether she was on stage or just going out to eat.”

Born into a family with deep musical roots, Bass learned to sing from her gospel singer mother. Her brother, David Peaston, was also a performer who had a string of hits in the 1980s and 1990s. 

As a teenager, she began her professional career at the Showboat Club in north St. Louis. She landed a recording contract with the infamous Chess Records as a duet artist. Soon after, Bass co-wrote and recorded her famous “Rescue Me,” which reached number one on the R&B charts, and has since been covered by many artists including Cher and Aretha Franklin.

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May she rest in perfect peace.

SOURCE: Huffington Post