The musician, who also provided backing vocals on Suspicious Minds and When a Man Loves a Woman, died of cancer in Nashville on Sunday
Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, a soulful mezzo-soprano who provided backing vocals on such 1960s classics as Suspicious Minds and When a Man Loves a Woman and was a featured singer with the Grateful Dead for much of the 1970s, has died aged 78.
A spokesperson for Godchaux-MacKay confirmed that she died of cancer on Sunday at Alive hospice in Nashville.
Godchaux-MacKay and other Grateful Dead members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
Born Donna Jean Thatcher in Florence, Alabama, she had yet to turn 20 when she became a session performer in nearby Muscle Shoals, where many soul and rhythm and blues hits were recorded, and also was on hand for numerous sessions at the Memphis-based American Sound Studio. Her credits included Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds, Percy Sledge’s When a Man Loves a Woman and songs with Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs and Cher.
