Flora Yvonne Coleman was born in
Richmond, Virginia on October 12, 1942. She dropped out of high school in the eleventh grade to marry Leroy Fair, and gave birth to their son shortly after. At the recommendation of her husband, she joined
the Chantels and then the
James Brown Revue in 1961. While performing with Brown, she recorded a few singles for
King Records, including "I Found You", which he later re-worked into his own signature hit "
I Got You (I Feel Good)". She later linked up with
Chuck Jackson who took her to
Motown Records. Fair worked with
producer Norman Whitfield on a series of
singles: "Love Ain't No Toy", "Walk Out the Door If You Wanna", and her
cover version of "
Funky Music Sho' 'Nuff Turns Me On". In addition, the song featured in a special episode of
BBC TV programme The Vicar of Dibley, entitled "The Handsome Stranger", originally broadcast on 25 December 2006. By the 1980s, Fair had retired from recording and would occasionally perform in small clubs and bars around
Los Angeles. She worked as
Dionne Warwick's wardrobe coordinator. In 1991, Fair appeared on a TV movie called
Mr. Roadrunner, starring
Jools Holland and
Stephen Fry, lip-synching her signature song, "It Should Have Been Me". Fair died at the age of 51, from
pancreatic cancer in
Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 6, 1994. ==Personal life==