Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, Grateful Dead singer, dead at 78

Grateful Dead singer Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay has died. She was 78.

Godchaux-MacKay died on Sunday at Alive Hospice in Nashville, Tennessee, after a lengthy battle with cancer, her family confirmed Monday.

“She was a sweet and warmly beautiful spirit, and all those who knew her are united in loss,” the family said in a statement to Rolling Stone.

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“The family requests privacy at this time of grieving. In the words of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, ‘May the four winds blow her safely home,'” the statement added.

Godchaux-MacKay was born on Aug. 22, 1947 in Florence, Alabama. She began her music career as a member of the band Southern Comfort.

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As a session singer, Godchaux-MacKay sang backup on two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits: Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” (1966) and Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” (1968).

She also sang backup on sessions with Cher, Duane Allman, Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs and more.

Of singing with Presley, she told AL.com in 2016: “It was one of the most amazing times of my life. I had gone to see ‘Love Me Tender’ when I was either nine or 10 and everybody in the audience was screaming. But he was so kind to us and encouraging and complimentary, it was a wonderful time. He was a gentleman to the highest degree. And he looked great.”

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After moving to California, Godchaux-MacKay met fellow rocker Keith Godchaux and they married in 1970. The couple joined Grateful Dead the following year.

While Godchaux-MacKay sang lead and backup vocals for the band, her husband took over for late keyboardist and singer Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.

Godchaux-MacKay appeared on seven of Grateful Dead’s albums, including “Europe ’72,” “Wake of the Flood,” “Steal Your Face” and “Shakedown Street.”

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During their membership in the band, Godchaux-MacKay and Godchaux put out their own studio album as a duo, “Keith & Donna,” released in 1975.

The couple departed Grateful Dead together in 1979 and formed their own band, Ghosts, which was later renamed Heart of Gold Band. They also performed in the Jerry Garcia Band.

She told AL.com that Garcia “was perhaps the most intelligent person that I’ve ever been around and he was very conscious and he really taught me how to get out of myself and reach for something that is other than just what is your normal fare, daily living.”

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In July 1980, Godchaux died at age 32 in a car accident in San Geronimo, California, shortly after the couple’s first concert together.

Godchaux-MacKay took a temporary hiatus from music after the tragedy. She eventually married bassist David MacKay and moved back to Florence to record music at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.

In 2006, Godchaux-MacKay formed Kettle Joe’s Psychedelic Swamp Revue, later known as Donna Jean & the Tricksters and then the Donna Jean Godchaux Band.

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Godchaux-MacKay released her final studio album, “Back Around,” in 2014 under the Donna Jean Godchaux Band with contributions from Zen Tricksters guitarist Jeff Mattson.

She reunited with some of her former Grateful Dead bandmates at the Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival in June 2016 in Manchester, Tennessee.

Godchaux-MacKay was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Grateful Dead in 1994.

She is survived by her husband David, her sons Zion Godchaux and Kinsman MacKay and more family members.