Yvonne Staples of the Staple Singers Dies at 80

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Yvonne Staples of the Staple Singers Dies at 80
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8301667/yvonne-staples-obituary-staple-singers
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/yvonne-staples-of-the-staples-singers-dies-at-80/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Staple_Singers
https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/staple-singers

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Yvonne Staples, whose baritone helped propel the Staple Singers to the top of the music charts and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, has died at home in South Shore at age 80, according to Chicago’s Leak & Sons Funeral Home.

Yvonne performed on hits including “Respect Yourself,” “I’ll Take You There” and “Heavy Makes You Happy” with her sisters Mavis and Cleotha and their father, guitarist Pops Staples.

Yvonne was born in Chicago to Pops and Oceola Staples, both with Mississippi roots. She started singing with Mavis and their brother Pervis in the 1940s at their uncle’s church.

Their mother Oceola “helped us with costumes and she took care of everything, all the details. She even made sure the children carried themselves well,” Pops Staples once told the Sun-Times. “And she was always there after a tour or concert with our favorite meal.”

In 1970, Yvonne replaced her brother in the group.

The family lived near 89th and Langley, where they used to host an annual Fourth of July barbecue that drew friends and stars, including gospel legends Mahalia Jackson and Albertina Walker and Gene “Duke of Earl” Chandler.

Their soaring blood harmonies wove together gospel, pop, funk, folk and soul on songs including Curtis Mayfield’s “Let’s Do It Again” and “If You’re Ready (Come Go with Me).”

“That harmony is always going to be there,” Mavis Staples said in a 2003 Sun-Times interview, “because you all grew up together.”

The Staple Singers made more than 30 albums. Their greatest chart successes were on Stax Records in the early 1970s. And their performance was a highlight of the film “Wattstax,” a documentary of a 1972 Los Angeles concert dubbed the “Black Woodstock.”

Symbols of black empowerment and pride, they were active in the civil rights movement and toured the world. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled with the Staple Singers, he requested Pops Staples’ “Why? (Am I Treated So Bad).”

They received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. The recording academy said they “left an imprint of soulful voices, righteous conviction and danceable message music across the decades.”

Legions and legends were fans, including Bob Dylan, who would go on to have a romance with Mavis. In 2001, he told Sun-Times writer Dave Hoekstra and WTTW about hearing them for the first time: “We’d listen to the radio, usually late in the evening. ‘Dragnet’ and ‘FBI.’ ‘Peace and War,’ ‘Inner Sanctum’ and ‘Jack Benny.’ And then after the radio shows would come on, we used to pick up the station out of Shreveport [La.] and they used to play rhythm and blues, Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland, Junior Parker, and Muddy [Waters] and [Howlin’] Wolf and all that. But then at midnight the gospel stuff would start. I got to be acquainted with the Swan Silvertones and the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Highway QC’s and all that. But the Staple Singers came on … and they were so different.”

Pops Staples died in 2000 and Cleotha died in 2013.

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Yvonne Staples (right) with her sister Mavis at the UIC Forum in 2014. | Sun-Times file photo
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Yvonne Staples started singing in church in the 1940s. | Sun-Times file photo
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The Staple Singers, from left, Pervis, Cleotha, Pops, Mavis, and Yvonne Staples, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1999. (AP Photo)
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Yvonne Staples (background, right) sings at Symphony Center in 2007 with Chavonne Morris and Donny Gerrard as her sister Mavis Staples performs in foreground. | Sun-Times Archives
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Yvonne Staples, country singer Marty Stuart, Cleo Staples and Mavis Staples at the 2000 funeral for ‘Pops’ Staples at Trinity United Church of Christ. | Chicago Sun-Times archive






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Mrfreddygoodbud

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
there was a time we used to celebrate our transitions

but we have become so europeanized we think its a sad event....

Rest in Paradise and thank you for real soul touching music...

I KNOW A PLACE.....
 

Ill Paragraph

Lord of the Perfect Black
BGOL Investor
Peace,

this year is being rough on music :smh:

Rest in Peace Yvonne Staples. Thank you for the music. My condolences go out to her family and the entire staple singers crew.

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The Staples are some of the most underrated, overlooked musicians in the history of music. They did it all: gospel, R&B, Blues, Soul, Pop, etc. and did it all exceptionally.

RIP, Sis. Thanks for everything.
 

34real

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
RIP....one of the few to be able to stick to what they know(gospel)while doing R&B and meshing the two well
 

THE DRIZZY

Ally of The Great Ancestors
OG Investor
RIP. Thanks for the soulful classics you were on. Condolences for her family, close friends, and fans that loved her music.
 

roots69

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
there was a time we used to celebrate our transitions

but we have become so europeanized we think its a sad event....

Rest in Paradise and thank you for real soul touching music...

I KNOW A PLACE.....


Yeah, I remember my mom telling me as a kid, Dont cry for me when I die!! It messed my head up for awhile. The older I got, it hit me like a ton of bricks what she meant!! She was right, they have our thought process all ass backwards.. Anyway


Whenever I hear the song Lets do it again, it takes me back to the mid 70's!! Damn, it feels like yesterday
RIP
 
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