Miss Peaches, aka Etta James, passed away on January 20, just five days shy of her 74th birthday. Her music career spanned six decades and six genres: blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, gospel and jazz. Her hard-won success achieved by the ’60s was shattered by heroin addiction. Kicking the habit in 1974, she rebuilt her career, only to suffer later in life from dementia, and leukemia - which was the cause of death. You can read her life story on Wikipedia.
Photo source: Etta James, performing in San Jose, CA in 2000. Photo is by Louis Ramirez from his Flickr profile.
