Loleatta Holloway dies after a brief illness

Loleatta Holloway dies after a brief illness:

Monday evening following a brief illness. She was 64 years old.

Holloway’s death was confirmed Monday by her manager, Ron Richardson.

The lady with the big voice got her start as a gospel singer, recording with Albertina Walker and the Caravans. In the early 1970s, she signed a recording contract with the Aware Recrods. Holloway recorded two albums for the label, both of them produced by Floyd Smith—Loleatta (1973) and Cry to Me (1975). Holloway later married Smith. Her first single from the second album, the ballad Cry to Me (video below) rose to No. 10 Billboard R&B and No. 68 on the Hot 100, but before the label could really establish Holloway, it went out of business.