Marie Knight Dies At 84; Gospel Vocalist Sang with Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Marie Knight was best known for her gospel duets with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, including “Up Above My Head” and “Didn’t It Rain.” She toured with the gospel legend in the late 1940s and made a late-in-life comeback as a solo artist. (Patricia De Gorostarzu)
Marie Knight, a gospel singer who came to fame singing duets with gospel-music star Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the late 1940s and made a noteworthy late-in-life comeback as a solo artist, has died. She was 84.
Knight died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at a nursing home in Harlem in New York City, said her manager, record producer Mark Carpentieri.
With a voice that one recent reviewer described as “a natural wonder, an unadorned, powerful instrument,” Knight began her career touring the national gospel circuit with evangelist Frances Robinson as a young woman in the mid-1940s.
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