As the world knows, R&B great Tina Turner, 83, has died at her home in Switzerland. The cause of the death was not made public, but in recent years she had kidney troubles as well as battling cancer. She is survived by her second husband and two of her four children.
She and her then-husband, Ike Turner, had a slew of hits during the 1960s. Perhaps none were better than the Phil Spector-produced "River Deep, Mountain High." It was released in 1966. However that record did not do well but later it became regarded as a classic.
Her marriage to Ike was a failure because he was an abuser. They divorced in around 1978. Tina had a great deal of success as a solo artist, so she didn't need Ike anymore. She kept on with her career until well into her senior years. People always remarked about how great she looked, and she did for the longest time. Sadly, as it happens even with the best of us, disease and aging finally take a toll. She had a good run, though.
In her later years, she renounced her U.S. citizenship and became a Swiss citizen.
She was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 in Tennessee.
After rejoining her mother in St. Louis, she attended Sumner High School there. She and Alline began frequenting the Manhattan Club in East St. Louis, Ill., to hear Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm.
“I wanted to get up there and sing sooooo bad,” Ms. Turner recalled in “I, Tina: My Life Story” (1986), written with Kurt Loder. “But that took an entire year.”
One night, during one of the band’s breaks, the drummer, Eugene Washington, handed her the microphone and she began singing the B.B. King song “You Know I Love You,” which Mr. Turner had produced. “When Ike heard me, he said, ‘My God!’” she told People magazine in 1981. “He couldn’t believe that voice coming out of this frail little body.”
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