Blues legend Koko Taylor, who became known as the Queen of Blues and was one of the few women to find success in the male dominated blues scene, died Wednesday, her publicist said.
She was 80.
Blues is my life, the Grammy Award-winning singer said in a biography posted on her website.
It s a true feeling that comes from the heart, not just something that comes out of my mouth. Blues is what I love, and singing the blues is what I always do.
Born Cora Walton on a sharecropper s farm outside of Memphis, Tennessee, she earned the nickname Koko for her love of chocolate.
She moved to Chicago in 1952 with her soon-to-be-husband the late Robert Pops Taylor and nothing but 35 cents and a box of Ritz Crackers.
Taylor settled on the city s south side, haunting blues clubs by night and cleaning houses by day.
Encouraged by her husband, Taylor soon began to sing and got her big break in 1963 when composer Willie Dixon came up to her after a particularly fiery performance and told her I never heard a woman sing the blues like you sing the blues.
Dixon helped her land a recording contract with Chess Records, producing two of her albums and penning her million-selling 1965 hit Wang Dang Doodle.
She moved to Chicago s Alligator Records in 1975 where she recorded nine more albums, her most recent in 2007.
Taylor s final performance was on May 7 in Memphis, Tennessee after receiving her 29th Blues Music Award.
She received the National Endowment for the Art s National Heritage Fellowship Award in 2004, which is among the highest honors given to an American artist, and won a Grammy Award in 1984.
She died of complications following a May 19 surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding, Alligator Records said in a press release.
Survivors include Taylor s husband Hays Harris, daughter Joyce Threatt, son-in-law Lee Threatt, grandchildren Lee, Jr. and Wendy, and three great-grandchildren. -AFP
