Three Degrees - The late Fayette Pinkney (live in Scandinavia)

This is Fayette Pinkney of The Three Degrees singled out giving a solo performance in Norway as part of the main show.She is able to showcase her great vocals and what is also great is the close up view of her facial expressions which are constantly changing with the emotion of the line she is singing. Fayette was a very special person for a number of reasons. She was a founding member of the group at 15 in 1963. She sacrificed much for the group, putting in long hours of practice to achieve those wonderful harmonies when most girls her age were dating guys and having some fun. The original line up was Fayette with Shirley Porter and Linda Turner. The latter two were soon replaced by Valerie Holiday and Helen Scott. Helen Scott left to start a family and was replaced by Sheila Ferguson. Thus we arrive at the group I showed doing MacArthur Park. However in 1977 Fayette wanted to date Lou Rawls and that did not go down well with the management. They gave her an ultimatum, either date Lou or be in the group. Thus she came to be fired. This was not really the train smash it sounds as she did not intend being the group for decades like Valerie and the money she had earned in the group enabled her to do what she really wanted to do . This was to go to College, which she had not been able to do as her family did not have means. She earned a bachelors degree in psychology followed by a Masters in Management. This enabled her to take a job as a councillor in a women's hospital in Philadelphia. In her free time she voice trained up and coming young singers from disadvantaged backgrounds and also led the choir group in her church. She also went on tours with this group. She gave birth to a daughter when she was 46 but sadly the infant died at two days old. Sadly too Fayette passed away from acute respiratory failure at 61. Towards the end of her life she was given a BEMA (Black Enterprise in Music Award). Remembering Fayette, someone who had known her said that she was the sort of person who had lived her whole life not just with love but with agape. I think I can honestly say that if I went on a program which asked the question " Who from history would you most like to meet" it would be Fayette Pinkney, looking at the outline of her life.