Legendary R&B vocalist Roberta Flack has died at the age of 88.

According to a statement from her rep: “We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025. She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”  A formal cause of death was not shared, but the music artist had been navigating ALS since 2022, causing her to lose her ability to sing (per NBC News.)

The Grammy-winning artist, who rose to stardom in the early ’70s with the iconic hit songs “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” started playing piano as a girl and earned herself a Howard University scholarship at just 15 years old. Eventually, she became a teacher, and sang in Washington D.C. clubs before releasing her first album, First Take, in 1969. It included the song “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” which became popular after it appeared in Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me, and earned the singer two Grammy awards.

Flack was honored with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1999, and she later developed the Roberta Flack School of Music for the Bronx’s Hyde Leadership Charter School. Flack was married to jazz musician Steve Novosel from 1966 to 1972, and was the godmother of musician Bernard Wright, who died in May 2022.

Editorial credit: s_bukley / Shutterstock.com