Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay Dies at 78

Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, the Grateful Dead singer, died Nov. 2, 2025, at a hospice in Nashville at age 78 after a lengthy battle with cancer, her family and representatives said. An Alabama native and Muscle Shoals session singer, she provided backing vocals on 1960s No. 1 hits including Percy Sledge’s "When a Man Loves a Woman" and Elvis Presley’s "Suspicious Minds," and recorded with artists such as Cher, Neil Diamond, Duane Allman and Boz Scaggs. She joined the Grateful Dead in 1971 alongside her husband Keith Godchaux and contributed to studio albums Europe ’72, Wake of the Flood and Terrapin Station as well as landmark live performances including Cornell ’77 and the 1978 Egypt shows. She later led her own bands and continued recording into the 2010s, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Grateful Dead in 1994. Her family requested privacy, invoked Robert Hunter’s line "May the four winds blow her safely home," and said she is survived by her husband David MacKay, her sons, siblings and a grandson.