Death
On September 22, 2011, Williams was found dead in a hotel room in El Segundo, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. According to the county coroner's office, Williams was found dead at 6:15 p.m. A Los Angeles County Coroner's Office spokesperson stated that the following autopsy did not yield a cause of death. In late December 2011, the family released this statement, through a family friend singer/producer Norwood Young, reporting her official cause of death: "Following three months of intensive coroner's autopsy and toxicology research, it has been definitively determined that the cause of death for our beloved Vesta was 'natural death' from 'hypertensive heart disease,'" adding: "An enlarged heart can remain undetected for many years."
Vesta Williams was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) on Octoder 4th, 2011 following the memorial service at West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, California. Attendees included notable friends Wanda Dee, singer Peggi Blu, Freda Payne, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine, Kellita Smith, Norwood Young, Michael Collier (author), Miki Howard, Karel Bouley, Kiki Shepard, Jackee’, Luenell and renowned Blues singer, Linda Hopkins. A private reception was held following the interment.
She is survived by her mother, daughter, three sisters, a brother and three grandchildren as well as many cousins, friends and fans.
Read more about this topic: Vesta Williams
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you’ll find him,
His father’s sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
“To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night;
To defy Power, which seems Omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope, till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change nor falter nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan! is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“Life is in the mouth; death is in the mouth.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 60, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)