Yvonne Staples of Staples Singers Dies at 80: Reports

Singer Yvonne Staples poses for a portrait at the 42nd NAACP Image Awards held at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Calif. on March 4, 2011. Charley Gallay/Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards

Singer Yvonne Staples of the Staples Singers group died at the age of 80, according to reports.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Stapes, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, died in Chicago.

She performed on hits that include “Respect Yourself,” “I’ll Take You There,” and “Heavy Makes You Happy.” The Staples Singers included her sisters Mavis and Cleotha as well as their father, Pops, who played the guitar. Between 1971 to 1975, the Staples Singers had eight Top 40 hits.

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

Family friend Bill Carpenter said that Staples was a business-minded person who was “no nonsense but at the same time had a heart of gold,” The Associated Press reported.

The Staples Singers also got a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys in 2005.

Cleotha, the oldest of the Staples siblings, passed away in 2013. She was 78.

Pops Staples died in 2000.

Mavis Staples, 78, is the only remaining member of the group, and, according to the New York Daily News, she is slated to perform in Baton Rouge on Saturday, April 14.

Other details about Yvonne Staples’ death were not made immediately clear in reports on Tuesday.

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