LaVern Baker; Rhythm and Blues Singer Had 1950s Hits

LaVern Baker, the rhythm and blues singer best known for her gold record 1950s hits “Tweedle-Dee” and “Jim Dandy,” has died. She was 67.

Baker, who in 1991 became only the second woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, died Monday at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. A diabetic, she had suffered strokes and two years ago had both legs amputated below the knees.

Among her other hits were “I Cried a Tear,” “Shake a Hand,” “Saved” and “See See Rider.”

In recent years, Baker recorded “Saved” and “Leaving It Up to You” for the film “Shag,” and the song “Slow Rolling Mama” for the film “Dick Tracy.”

Although many fans believed that she was admitted belatedly to the Hall of Fame, the irrepressible Baker said at the presentation: “Regardless of how old you are when you get this, it’s still good, baby.”

She also returned to performing after losing her legs, including a two-week stint at Hollywood’s Cinegrill in 1995.

“I lost my legs,” she told The Times in an interview in New York shortly before that engagement. “But I didn’t lose my mind. I’m tired of just sittin’. I want to do something. God gave me a talent and I can still use it. I can still go out and sing.”

The feisty singer, appearing in a wheelchair at the Cinegrill, told her audience: “I feel good. The only thing now is that I’ve got to find a man that’s short.”

Born Delores Williams in Chicago, she was a niece of blues matriarch Memphis Minnie. Baker began singing in Chicago clubs as “Little Miss Sharecropper.”

She was discovered in one of those clubs by bandleader Fletcher Henderson. As a teenager, she won a recording contract with Okeh Records. After touring with the Todd Rhodes Orchestra, she earned a more prestigious contract with Atlantic Records and became one of its stars in the 1950s.

Like many black artists, she saw many of her songs recorded by white singers who went on to sell more records than she did.

Baker continued recording and performing until her work was eclipsed by the Motown movement in the late 1960s. Her final entry on the rhythm and blues and pop charts was a duet in 1966 with Jackie Wilson, “Think Twice.”

Ill after performing for U.S. troops in Vietnam, Baker went to the Philippines to recuperate. She stayed on for 22 years, running a club near a U.S. military base and singing for soldiers on weekends.

Baker returned to New York and performing in 1991. In addition to recording a compilation album called “Soul on Fire--the Best Of,” she appeared for eight months in the Broadway musical “Black and Blue.”