DAYTONA BEACH -- Donna Summer, the 1970s Queen of Disco with smash hitts like "Bad Girls" "Dim All the Lights" and "Love to Love You Baby," died May 17, at her second home in Naples of lung cancer. She was 63 years old.
The five-time Grammy winner's discography of hits included the likes of 1975's "Love to Love You Baby, 1977's "I Feel Love," and 1978's and "Last Dance."
Summer capped her '70s disco identity with the 1979 album "Bad Girls" with the hit single and "Hot Stuff" both topping the Billboard pop and disco charts, along with top 40 hit "Dim All the Lights."
A second album," "On the Radio" (Vol. 1 and 2) included the title song, along with top 40 hits "Heaven Knows," and "MacArthur Park," along with the Summer's final No. 1 duet with Barbra Streisand, "No More Tears (Enough is Enough."
Summer returned in 1983, with the top 40 anthem for women in the workforce with "She Works Hard for the Money." Her last Top 40 single came in 1989, with, "This Time I Know It's for Real."
Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines on Dec. 31, 1948 in Boston, she grew up singing gospel music in church before moving to New York City in the latter 1960s fronting a psychedelic rock band named "Crow," and joining a touring version of the musical "Hair."
She moved to West Germany in the early 1970s, where she married Austrian actor Helmut Sommer. They divorced two years later, and she changed the "o" in Sommer to a "u" for her adopted stage name.
She returned to the US in 1975, and collaborated with Pete Belllotte in writing the song "Love to Love You Baby," which was produced by Giorgio Moroder, and put her front and center on the disco scene.
By 1977, Summer had become a discoA-lister, along with Chic ("LeFreak," "Good Times"), Anita Ward ("Ring My Bell"), Gloria Gaynor ("I Will Survive"), KC and the Sunshine Band ("Get Down Tonight," "Im Your Boogie Man)" and the Bee Gees ("Stayin' Alive," "How Deep is Your Love" and "Night Fever").
Summer closed out the decade with the 1979 chart-topping albums "Bad Girls" and "On the Radio," cementing her legacy as the "Queen of Disco."
With disco fading and the 70s giving way to the Big 80s with punk and synthesizer pop, Summer's star faded, too, ion favor of rising stars like Blondie's Deborah Harry with "Heart of Glass", Pat Benatar with "Love is a Battlefield", Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders with "Bras in Pocket"and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, whose 1981 No. 1 song, "I Love Rock and Roll," made disco ancient history.
Summer, a regular performer at New York City's Studio 54 in the latter '70s who became a favorite of gay men, got caught up in controversy for allegedly saying AIDS was God's punishment for homosexuals because of their promiscuous lifestyle, later saying it was all a misunderstanding, though in 1989, she offered an apology.
Earlier in the decade she re-married and later had two children. In 1984, she sang at inauguration for President Reagan's second term. In 2009, she performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, in honor of President Obama.
Summer had described her illness as a non-smoking form of lung cancer causing by inhaling toxins from the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, according to TMZ and other media outlets.
Headline Surfer is Central Florida's 24/7 award-winning Internet newspaper in New Smyrna Beach with emphasis on breaking news and investigative reporting. Headline Sufer is the recpient of four awards in the Florida Prss Club's 2012 excellence in journalism contest for general news writing, public safety reporting, blog writing and best online presence. Access to Headline Surfer, a registered trademark, is free via