Feb. 24 (UPI) — Grammy-winning singer Roberta Flack, known for iconic songs like “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” has died. She was 88 years old.
A representative confirmed her death Monday to NBC News. A formal cause of death was not shared, but the music artist had been navigating ALS since 2022, causing her to lose her ability to sing.
Flack’s rep also shared the news with Variety.
“She died peacefully surrounded by her family,” the rep told the outlet. “Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
Flack started playing piano as a girl and earned herself a Howard University scholarship at just 15 years old.
Eventually, she became a teacher, and sang in Washington D.C. clubs. One such performance was witnessed by musician Les McCann who said, “her voice touched, tapped, trapped and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known,” and helped her secure a record deal.
Her first album, First Take, was released in 1969.
It included the song “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” which became popular after it appeared in Clint Eastwood‘s Play Misty for Me, and earned the singer two Grammy awards.
She is also well known for “Killing Me Softly with His song,” which appears on her 1973 album Killing Me Softly.
Flack was honored with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1999, and she later developed the Roberta Flack School of Music for the Bronx’s Hyde Leadership Charter School.
