Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning singer and pianist known for her intimate vocal and musical style, passed away on Monday at the age of 88.
She died at home, surrounded by her family, according to a statement from her publicist, Elaine Schock. In 2022, Flack revealed that she had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and could no longer sing.
Flack, who was relatively unknown in her early 30s, became an overnight sensation when Clint Eastwood used her song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” as the soundtrack for one of the most iconic and passionate love scenes in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me with Eastwood and Donna Mills. The gentle, hymn-like ballad, featuring Flack’s graceful soprano over soft strings and piano, reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1972 and won a Grammy for Record of the Year.
“The record label suggested re-recording it with a faster tempo, but he insisted on keeping it just as it was,” Flack told The Associated Press in 2018. “With the song becoming the theme for his movie, it gained a lot of attention and quickly became a hit.”
