Nancy Sue Wilson (February 20, 1937 – December 13, 2018) was an American singer whose career spanned over five decades, from the mid-1950s until her retirement in the early 2010s. She was especially notable for her single "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" and her version of the standard "Guess Who I Saw Today". Wilson recorded more than 70 albums and won three Grammy Awards for her work. During her performing career, Wilson was labeled a singer of blues, jazz, R&B, pop, and soul; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer". The title she preferred, however, was "song stylist". She received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Baby", "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice".
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Early life
Nancy Wilson was born on February 20, 1937, in Chillicothe, Ohio, to Olden Wilson, an iron foundry worker, and Lillian Ryan.
Wilson attended Burnside Heights Elementary School and developed her singing skills by participating in church choirs. She attended West High School in Columbus, Ohio where she won a talent contest and was rewarded with a role as a host for a local television show. She then went on to attend Ohio's Central State University where she pursued her B.A. degree in education.
Career
When Wilson met Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, he suggested she move to New York City for career opportunities. In 1959 she moved to New York to try to hire Adderley's manager and get a contract with Capitol Records. Within four weeks of her arrival she got her first big break, a call to fill in for Irene Reid at The Blue Morocco. The club booked Wilson on a permanent basis; she was singing four nights a week and working as a secretary for the New York Institute of Technology during the day. John Levy sent demos of "Guess Who I Saw Today", "Sometimes I'm Happy", and two other songs to Capitol Records. The label signed her in 1960.
Wilson's debut single, "Guess Who I Saw Today", was so successful that between April 1960 and July 1962 Capitol Records released five Nancy Wilson albums. Her first album, Like in Love, displayed her talent in rhythm and blues. Adderley suggested that she should steer away from her original pop style and gear her music toward jazz and ballads. In 1962 their collaboration produced the album Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley, which propelled her to national prominence with the hit R&B song, "Save Your Love For Me"; Wilson would later appear on Adderley's live album In Person (1968). Between March 1964 and June 1965, four of Wilson's albums hit the Top 10 on Billboard's Top LPs chart. In 1963 "Tell Me The Truth" became her first truly major hit, leading up to her performance at the Coconut Grove in 1964 – the turning point of her career, garnering critical acclaim from coast to coast. TIME said of her, "She is, all at once, both cool and sweet, both singer and storyteller." In 1964 Wilson released what became her most successful hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am", which peaked at No. 11. From 1963 to 1971 Wilson logged 11 songs on the Hot 100, including two Christmas singles. However, "Face It Girl, It's Over" was the only remaining non-Christmas song to crack the Top 40 for Wilson (No. 29 in 1968).
After making numerous television guest appearances, Wilson eventually got her own series on NBC, The Nancy Wilson Show (1967–1968), which won an Emmy. Over the years she appeared on many popular television shows such as I Spy (more or less playing herself as a Las Vegas singer in the 1966 episode "Lori" and as a similar character in the 1973 episode "The Confession" of The F.B.I.), Room 222, Hawaii Five-O, Police Story, The Jack Paar Program, The Sammy Davis Jr. Show (1966), The Danny Kaye Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Kraft Music Hall, The Sinbad Show, The Cosby Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Soul Food, New York Undercover, Moesha, and The Parkers. She was a guest on numerous popular variety and talk shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show, The Arsenio Hall Show, and The Flip Wilson Show. She was featured in Robert Townsend's 1993 film The Meteor Man and in The Big Score. She also appeared on The Lou Rawls Parade of Stars and the March of Dimes Telethon.
Awards
In 1964 Wilson won her first Grammy Award for the Best Rhythm & Blues recording for the album How Glad I Am. She was featured as a "grand diva" of jazz in a 1992 edition of Essence. In the same year, she also received the Whitney Young Jr. Award from the Urban League. In 1998 she was a recipient of the Playboy Reader Poll Award for best jazz vocalist.
In 1986 she was dubbed the Global Entertainer of the Year by the World Conference of Mayors. She received an award from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1993, the NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award in 1998, and was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999. She received the Trumpet Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1994. Wilson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990 at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard. She received honorary degrees from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. She is also a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Wilson has a street named after her in her hometown of Chillicothe, Ohio. She co-founded the Nancy Wilson Foundation, which introduces inner-city children to the country. Wilson was the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts' (NEA) NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships award in 2004, the highest honors that the United States government bestows upon jazz musicians. In 2005 she received the NAACP Image Awards for Best Recording Jazz Artist. She received the 2005 UNCF Trumpet Award celebrating African-American achievement, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP in Chicago, and Oprah Winfrey's Legends Award.
In September 2005 Wilson was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. Wilson was a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement. Wilson noted that the event gave her "one of the best ceremonies that I've ever had in my life." Times.com, August 20, 2006, wrote: "It's been a long career for the polished Wilson, whose first albums appeared in the 1960s, and she faces that truth head-on in such numbers as 'These Golden Years' and 'I Don't Remember Ever Growing Up'. Shorter breathed these days, she can still summon a warm, rich sound and vividly tell a song's story. With a big band behind her in 'Taking a Chance on Love', she also shows there's plenty of fire in her autumnal mood". At the Hollywood Bowl on August 29, 2007, Wilson celebrated her 70th birthday with an all-star event hosted by Arsenio Hall. Ramsey Lewis and his trio performed "To Know Her Is To Love Her".
Life and death
Wilson and her first husband, drummer Kenny Dennis, were married in 1960. They had a son, Kenneth ("Kacy") Dennis Jr., but by 1970 they had divorced.
Within a month of their first meeting, Wilson married Reverend Wiley Burton, a Presbyterian minister, on May 22, 1974. She gave birth to Samantha Burton in 1975, and the couple adopted Sheryl Burton in 1976.
As a result of her marriage she abstained from performing in various venues such as supper clubs. For the following two decades she successfully juggled her personal life and her career. Both of her parents died in November 1998; she called this year the most difficult of her life.
Wilson was hospitalized with anemia and potassium deficiency and was on I.V. sustenance while she was undergoing a complete battery of tests in August 2006. She was unable to attend the UNCF Evening of Stars Tribute to Aretha Franklin and had to cancel the engagement. All of her other engagements were on hold pending doctors' reports.
She was hospitalized for lung complications in March 2008 but recovered and was reported to be doing well. Later that year her husband, Wiley Burton, died after suffering from renal cancer. Wilson died after a long illness at her home in Pioneertown, California, on December 13, 2018. She was 81 years old.
Grammy history
Career wins: 3
Career nominations: 7 (Note: In a 2007 interview, Wilson stated that she had been nominated more than 20 times. However, the Grammy Awards web site lists seven nominations for Wilson.)
Filmography
DVD concert films
Nancy Wilson at Carnegie Hall (2001)
Great Women Singers of the 20th Century – Nancy Wilson (2005)