Donna Jean Godchaux, Alabama singer and longtime member of the Grateful Dead, dies at 78

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, who had been a professional singer in Muscle Shoals, Alabama when she took a nearly decade-long turn with the Grateful Dead during its most critically-lauded period, died over the weekend. She was 78.

In statements published in magazines such as Rolling Stone

and Relix, Godchaux’s family said the famed singer died Sunday at the Alive Hospice in Nashville following a “lengthy battle with cancer.”

“She was a sweet and warmly beautiful spirit, and all those who knew her are united in loss,” the statement read. “In the words of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, ‘May the four winds blow her safely home.’”

Godchaux was most well-known for her stint with the Dead, with whom she and her husband, keyboardist Keith Godchaux, played with from 1972 until 1979, but she was already a seasoned professional by the time she had joined the band. Born in Florence, Alabama, Godchaux was active in the Muscle Shoals music scene, recording with artists such as Percy Sledge on “When a Man Loves a Woman,” and Cher for her album “3614 Jackson Highway.”

By 1970, Godchaux left Alabama for San Francisco, where she met and married Keith and eventually got a job as a secretary at Union Oil. It was while in California that she was first introduced to the Grateful Dead. Initially, she was unimpressed.

“When I was at Union Oil, everybody was into the Grateful Dead, so I would listen to some of the records and I would go ‘You guys are nuts. You’re on drugs or something because these guys don’t know how to play music,” Godchaux said in an interview with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

It wasn’t until she saw the band perform at Winterland in October 1970 that the band was “on.”

“When I sat up there in the balcony of Winterland, I said to whoever it was sitting next to me, ‘When I sing again, it’s going to be with that band,” she said.

Likewise, Keith Godchaux was equally smitten with the group.

“I came home from Union Oil one day and I said ‘Let’s listen to some Grateful Dead,” and Keith said, ‘I don’t want to listen to it anymore. I want to play it.’ And I said ‘Okay. Let’s get in the band,'” she said.

After an introduction to Dead frontman Jerry Garcia, Keith Godchaux joined the band in late 1971 as their new keyboardist, eventually replacing Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. Soon afterward, Donna Godchaux joined the band, playing on classic albums like “Europe ’72” and “Blues for Allah.”:

By 1979, the Godchauxes had left the band to do their own music.

“Keith and I decided we wanted to get out and start our own group or something else – anything else,” she told Blair Jackson in his book, “Garcia: An American Life.” “So we played that benefit concert at Oakland [2/17/79] and then a few days later there was a meeting at our house and it was brought up whether we should stay in the band anymore…and we mutually decided we’d leave.”

Following Keith Godchaux’s death in a car accident in 1980, Donna Godchaux continued making music, eventually marrying Fiddleworms bassist David MacKay and starting her own band, the Donna Godchaux Band.

In 1994, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead, along with her late husband, Keith. Over the years, Godchaux remained plugged into the Alabama music scene and sporadically performed with members of the Dead, such as guitarist Bob Weir and with the John Mayer vehicle Dead and Company.

In 2016, she was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

“Her unmistakable voice and radiant spirit touched the lives of countless fans and immeasurably enriched the Grateful Dead family,” a message on the Grateful Dead’s Facebook page read. “Her contributions will forever remain part of the tapestry that continues to be woven.”

Godchaux is survived by her husband David MacKay, sons Zion Godchaux and Kinsman MacKay, one grandchild and two siblings.

No funeral announcements have been made.