Gladys Horton, co-founder and former lead singer of the popular Motown group[lastfm link_type="artist_info"] The Marvelettes [/lastfm]has died. She was 66.
Vaughn Thornton, 40, says his mother passed away on Wednesday, Jan. 26th in a Sherman Oaks, California  nursing home where she had  been recuperating from a stroke that she suffered some time ago.

“My mother died peacefully,” said Thornton. “She fought as long as she could.”

Horton was born in Detroit, Mich. in 1944. She was raised by foster parents in the western Detroit suburb of Inkster.

While a student at Inkster High School, Horton developed a strong interest in singing and joined the high school glee club. She joined with several other members of the glee club, Katherine Anderson, Juanita Cowart , Georgeanna Tillman and later Georgia Dobbins to form a group.

The ladies called themselves “The Casinyets,” short for “can’t sing yet.”

Following a successful talent contest to sing for Motown, Dobbins, who was the group’s first lead singer had to leave the group after her father forbid her from singing in nightclubs.

Horton then became the lead singer and the group changed their name to The Marvelettes. Motown released the song “Please Mr. Postman”  in the summer of 1961 when she was only fifteen. It became Motown’s first #1 pop hit.

Horton led on several other hits songs, including “Beechwood 4-5789,” “Playboy” and “Too Many Fish In The Sea.”

Wanda Young became the group’s lead singer in 1965 but Horton stayed with them until 1967.
Horton published her autobiography, Original Marvelettes, Motown’s Mystery Girl Group, in 2004

She is also survived by son, Sammy, 42.