Folk music, civil rights legend Odetta dies at 77

NEW YORK–Odetta’s monumental voice rang out in August 1963 when she sang I’m on My Way at the historic March on Washington, where Martin Luther King gave his I Have a Dream speech.

NEW YORK–Odetta’s monumental voice rang out in August 1963 when she sang "I’m on My Way" at the historic March on Washington, where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.

She had hoped to perform again in Washington next month when Barack Obama is inaugurated as the nation’s first Black president. But the acclaimed folk singer, who influenced generations of musicians and was an icon in the civil rights struggle, died Dec. 2 after battling heart disease. She was 77.

In spite of failing health, Odetta performed 60 concerts in the last two years, and her singing ability never diminished, manager Doug Yeager said.

“The power would just come out of her like people wouldn’t believe,” he said.

She was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital with kidney failure about three weeks ago, Yeager said in confirming her death.

With her classically trained voice and spare guitar, Odetta gave life to the songs by workingmen and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, Blacks and whites.

First coming to prominence in the 1950s, she influenced Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and other superstars of the folk music boom.

She was nominated for a 1963 Grammy awards for best folk recording for Odetta Sings Folk Songs. Two more Grammy nominations came in recent years, for her 1999 Blues Everywhere I Go and her 2005 album Gonna Let It Shine.

Her 1965 album Odetta Sings Dylan included such standards as "Don’t Think Twice," "It’s All Right," "Masters of War" and "The Times They Are A-Changin’."

Born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Ala., in 1930, she moved with her family to Los Angeles at age 6. Her father had died when she was young, and she took her stepfather’s last name, Felious. Hearing her in glee club, a junior high teacher made sure she got music lessons, but Odetta became interested in folk music in her late teens and turned away from classical studies.

Odetta is survived by a daughter, Michelle Esrick of New York City, and a son, Boots Jaffre, of Fort Collins, Colo. She was divorced about 40 years ago and never remarried, her manager said.

A memorial service was planned for next month, Yeager said.  AP

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