She was born Stephanie Natalie Maria Cole on February 6, 1950. Perhaps best known as the daughter of the legendary crooner Nat King Cole and his wife Maria Ellington Cole, and vocalist with the great bandleader Duke Ellington, Cole died at Cedars Sinai Hospital on Thursday, December 31 from ongoing health issues.
She was 65 years old. Cole’s only child, Robert Yancy was by her side.
“It is with a heavy hearts that we bring to you all the news of our mother and sister’s passing. Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived…with dignity, strength, and honor. Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever,” read the statement from her son and sisters, Timolin and Casey Cole.
Cole was born into music royalty. Her father, Nat King Cole, already a recording superstar at the time of her birth found international acclaim selling more than 50 million records during his career. Nat King Cole would become the first Black entertainer to host his own national television show and the first Black person to purchase a home in Hancock Park, an affluent community in the Los Angeles area. Unwanted by the other homeowners in the area, the Cole family was taunted with racial slurs, the family dog was poisoned, and neighbors signed a petition against “undesirables.”
Because of his stature in the music business, Cole grew up surrounded by great musicians, many of whom were friends of her father.
“I remember meeting Peggy Lee, Danny Thomas, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and so many others at parties,” Cole told The Wall Street Journal in 2014. “We had no idea of the magnitude of the personalities around us,” Cole said in her 2000 memoir, Angel on My Shoulder.
In 1961, Cole made her professional singing debut, performing with her dad at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. She sang, “I’m With You.” She was 11 years old.
Cole described her father as “sweet, kind, and good-hearted but frequently absent because of his performing career.”
“I taught myself to sing R&B because my father didn’t like that stuff,” Cole said in earlier interviews. When Nat King Cole heard her sing an Ella Fitzgerald song, he was said to have proclaimed, “By gosh, you’ve got it.”
Cole attended prep school in New England until the death of her father in 1965. He died nine days after her fifteenth birthday. Cole would go on to study psychology at the University of Massachusetts and briefly attend the University of Southern California where she pledged the Upsilon chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She sang R&B at clubs on the weekends, meticulously avoided her father’s songs. “I avoided Dad’s material when I sang in the early days. I was determined to create my own identity,” Cole said. “I was raised in a very protected environment and didn’t have a lot of black friends as a child. When I went to college, I realized that I was a black person too. It was a great eye-opener for me, which is why I got involved [protesting the war and speaking out], said Cole.
As a student, Cole also began to experiment with drugs, specifically heroin and LSD, an addiction that she would fight against for the rest of her life.
In 1974, Cole debuted her first album, Inseparable, which featured the hit single, This Will Be. The song won her the Best New Artist Grammy and Best R&B Vocal Performance in 1975, the first of nine Grammy’s that she would go on to win. In 1976, Cole married producer Marvin Yancy and they had a son, Robbie.
In 1977, Cole released two more platinum albums, Unpredictable and Thankful. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979. Cole has said that as her career took flight so did her drug addiction.
In 1982, Cole’s mother, Maria went to court seeking conservatorship powers over Cole and her estate. The petition was signed by Cole herself and granted.
In 1983, after spending several months at the Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota, Cole said, “Somehow, at some point halfway through those 30 days, I went from not wanting to be there to being afraid to leave. I was starting to get it.”
In 1985, following her release from rehab, she released her comeback album, Dangerous. This album featured the mega-hit Pink Cadillac. In 1991, Cole released the career-defining album, Unforgettable…with Love, a tribute to her father that featured the digitally engineered, virtual duet with her father, Unforgettable. The album sold more than 14 million copies and won six Grammy awards including Album and Record of the Year.
“Natalie possessed one of those magical voices that grabbed you from the first note. It could sound like honey, but when she wanted to belt, she could keep up with the best of them,” said Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the Grammy Awards. “In a way, and not just in lineage, Natalie was the connector between the great singers of her father and Ella’s generation, and the great female voices who were to dominate in the last 25 years,” Ehrlich said.
Of that time, Natalie said, “I didn’t shed really any real tears until the album was over. Then I cried a whole lot. When we started the project it was a way of reconnecting with my dad. Then when we did the last song, I had to say goodbye again.”
Cole would continue recording and performing onstage and on the small screen. Cole released Snowfall on the Sahara, and the Magic of Christmas in 1999; Natalie Cole’s: Greatest Hits, Vol. One in 2000; Still Unforgettable in 2008, which won a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal album; and her most recent album Natalie Cole En Español, in 2013 that featured songs her father had recorder earlier in Spanish.
Cole also authored two books, her 2000 memoir Angel on My Shoulder and Love Brought Me Back in 2010 that detailed her hepatitis C diagnosis and subsequent kidney failure and the kidney donation that ultimately received. In an ironic twist of fate, Cole received a kidney donation in 2009, the same day her older sister, Cookie died from cancer. Cole continued to perform through her illness saying, “ I think that I am a walking testimony that you can have scars. You can go through turbulent times and still have victory in your life.”
Cole also starred as herself in the made for television movie Livin for Love: The Natalie Cole Story. Cole also appeared in Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. “We’ve lost a wonderful, highly cherished artist and our heartfelt condolences go out to Cole’s family, friends, her many collaborators, as well as to all who have been entertained by her exceptional talents,” said Neil Portnow, President and CEO of The Recording Academy.
Cole’s family echoed that sentiment, stating, “As our sister Natalie is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on her death but will be on the countless moments of joyful music that she leaves for us all. We hope that her passion for music serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard and make their dreams come true,” Timolin Cole said.
Her son Robbie, and twin sisters Timolin and Casey Cole survive Cole.
Cole’s mother, Maria, died in 2012 and two other siblings Carol “Cookie” Cole and Nat Kelly Cole preceded her in death. At the time of this article, funeral arrangements for Cole were pending.
