According to reports, Sandy Posey, a country-pop singer who collaborated with Elvis Presley and achieved multiple hits in the 1960s, has passed away. She was eighty years old.
Two days later, according to TMZ, Posey passed away at her Tennessee home on Saturday morning, July 20, from dementia complications, with her husband Wade Cummins by her side.
A request for comment from PEOPLE was not immediately answered by Cummins.
Posey’s husband, a Presley impersonator who plays Elvis Wade, told TMZ that she was given a dementia diagnosis years ago and that her health has gotten worse over the last seven years.
Posey was born in Jasper, Alabama, on June 18, 1944, and was raised in Arkansas. According to her Spotify bio, she first worked as a receptionist at a recording studio before landing sessions as a session singer.
Producer Chips Moman was drawn to her debut single, “Kiss Me Goodnight,” which she released in 1965 under the alias Martha Sharp, according to the biography. Soon after, he assisted her in signing a deal with MGM Records.
Posey’s first two singles, “Born a Woman” and “Single Girl,” both peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, as did her 1967 hit, “I Take It Back.” Posey made her official pop recording debut in 1966.
At the 1967 ceremony, she received two Grammy nominations for “Born a Woman”: best contemporary solo vocal performance, male or female, and best vocal performance, female.
Posey changed to a more country-leaning sound in the 1970s and collaborated with Billy Sherrill, Tammy Wynette’s producer. During the decade, she achieved multiple top-40 hits in the genre.
According to Spotify, the singer took a break from performing in the middle of the 1980s and went on to work as a touring musician and session artist for Presley. She briefly resumed her recording career in the middle of the 2000s.
According to reports, Cummins told TMZ that Posey will be cremated and that a celebration of her life will be held at an undisclosed date in the near future, which he will stream live on Facebook.
