Fierce soul singer Sharon Jones dies at 60
Grammy nominee Sharon Jones died Friday at 60 after losing a battle with pancreatic cancer, according to her band's website.
The soul singer was known for her high-energy performances with her band the Dap-Kings; some had even called her the "female James Brown." Jones was a latecomer to the stage, starting her professional music career when she was 40. In 2014, she was nominated for her first Grammy for her album Give the People What They Want.
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Prior to leading the Dap-Kings, she worked as a prison guard at New York City's Rikers Island and often joked that the inmates didn't think she could make it in the tough setting -- she was 4-foot-11 and too nice, she said in an appearance earlier this year on NPR's quiz show, "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me."
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Jones was recently featured in a documentary on Starz called Miss Sharon Jones! It debuted in 2015 at the Toronto International Film Festival and followed her ascendant career and her battle against cancer.
Before hitting career strides, Jones struggled to break into the music industry. She started off singing in her church choir and in wedding bands, but when doors weren't opening, she took on a job as a corrections officer.
"They said I was too fat, too black, too short and too old and look at me now," she said in Miss Sharon Jones!
Her death shocked many of her fans who took to social media to express their grief.
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Brittany Levine Beckman was Mashable's managing editor. She enjoys crafting feature ideas, learning new things, and party parrots. Before working at Mashable, she covered community news at the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register. That's how she met a zonkey and the tallest man in the world.
