According to the Detroit News, yesterday Cleotha Staples of the influential gospel group The Staple Singers, has died. She was 78.
According to her publicist Bill Carpenter Staples died at her Chicago home after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
The Staple Singers got their start with a man named Roebuck "Pops" Staples, a manual laborer who strummed a $10 guitar while teaching his children gospel songs. In 1948 Pops had his children sing at church and three encores The Staple Singers were born.
Read: Damon Harris of The Temptations dead at 62
Signing on to the Stax label, the home music stars Otis Redding and Booker T. & the MGs, The Staples went on to create such hits as, "On My Way to Heaven," "Will the Circle be Unbroken" and their signature hit "Uncloudy Day."
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with her family in 1999, they went on to win a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys in 2005.
The Staples family were active in the civil rights movement and even went on to perform at events for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The song "I'll Take You There" spent a week at No. 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart.
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