Yvonne Staples

Backing singer for family group was also a dab hand at business

Yvonne Staples, who provided backing vocals for her family’s hit-making pop and soul group, the Staple Singers, while taking the lead in managing its business affairs, died on Tuesday of cancer at her home in Chicago. She was 80.

Staples began singing with the family act in 1971 and performed on some of their biggest hits, such as Respect Yourself and I’ll Take You There.

“She was very content in that role,” said Bill Carpenter, the author of Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. “She had no desire to be a front singer, even though people in the family told her she had a great voice.”

Staples was born in Chicago on 23 October 1937, to Oceola and Roebuck Staples. Her father formed the Staple Singers with his children Pervis, Mavis and Cleotha in 1948. They performed in churches inandaroundchicago,toured the South and became active in the civil rights movement, travelling with Martin Luther King Jr.

Yvonne Staples joined the group in 1971, when Pervis left for military service. The group, whose music blended gospel, soul and pop, had a string of hit songs in the 1970s.

When her sister Mavis began a solo career in the 1980s, Yvonne performed the same double duty for her as she did for the group, singing backing vocals and managing her tours until just a few years ago.

The Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and received a lifetime achievement award at the 2005 Grammy Awards.

Roebuck died in 2000 and Cleotha in 2013. Yvonne Staples is survived by her brother and her sister Mavis.