Natalie’s mother was the late singer Maria Hawkins Cole. She has four siblings, Carol, Casey, Nat Kelly, and Timolin.
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In 1983, she spent several months at the Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota and, with her health intact, released her come-back album, Dangerous, in 1985. Her son was present at the hospital when the singer/songwriter passed away.
In 1987 she returned to the top of the charts with her album unsafe, which included a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac”. With Love, on which Cole sang her father’s hits, earns her three Grammy Awards. She was always so kind & exuded so much grace.
She took that star quality and put it to good use, joining her dad for the first time onstage at the tender age of 11. She opened up about her struggles in the 2000 autobiography Angel on the Shoulder. In all, she won nine Grammys. She continued to perform well into past year.
Cole was married three times. Through the magic of technology, Cole was able to sing wth her father on the tracks as well. Critics compared her to Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin but her career floundered in the 1980s when she ran into problems with heroin.
Backed by the writing-producing team of Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy, she followed with such hits as Our Love and I’ve Got Love on My Mind, and by 1979 had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
FILE – In a Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009 file photo, Natalie Cole holds the best instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist award backstage at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, in Los Angeles.
Her own life saved, Cole was devastated at the loss of her sister, but grateful to the family of the woman whose kidney she received. However, there were over 30 million copies sold of the easy-listening record. One of the cancelled concert dates was for New Year’s Eve. “I think people hear the warmth in my voice and the friendliness and they think: “Oh, she must be a very nice person”.
At the same time, she lived a tumultuous personal life, with arrests, she wrote in her memoir, for offenses including drug possession, counterfeiting checks and shoplifting.
The doctor told her that she would need interferon, a type of chemotherapy, or her liver would stop functioning and the singer would die.
O’Connor said a specific cause of death wasn’t known but noted Cole’s medical history, adding she never fully recovered from a 2009 kidney transplant. Though, according to TMZ, the heart disease is the result of complications from a kidney transplant and Hepatitis C.
The talented singer, songwriter and television performer died on December 31, 2015.
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Cole’s final album, in 2008, was entitled “Still Unforgettable” and expanded on the theme of her 1991 work by adapting classic American tunes in addition to those of her father. We were blessed with her awesome talent and her presence. One of her last performances was here in Richmond, during last summer’s JazzFest.
