She was born in
Mobile, Alabama, and brought up in the small town of
Lower Peach Tree, where she began singing in church as a child. She also started writing songs, and by the
tenth grade led her own vocal group. She first sang professionally at the age of 17 at the Kings Club in
Prichard, Alabama. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a
gold disc by the
R.I.A.A in April 1972. Their duet version of "
(They Long to Be) Close to You" reached number 6 on the R&B chart and number 91 on the pop chart in 1972. She also sang regularly in
Rev. Jesse Jackson's
Operation Breadbasket Choir in Chicago in the early 1970s. As a solo singer, she had two minor R&B chart hits, "Good Old Fashioned Lovin'" (
Playboy Records, 1975) and "Watch My Body Talk" (
Private-I Records, 1984). She performed in the musicals
The Message is in the Music, alongside
Della Reese, and
Wild Woman Blues, in Europe with
blues singer Maine Weldon. Since 2006, she has directed The Heaven on Earth (T.H.E.) Choir at the City of Angels Church in
Culver City, California. She has also written and performed in a one-woman musical theatre show based on her own life,
Grace, which premiered in
Los Angeles in 2010. ==References==