Dusty Springfield, the 1960s British pop star famous for her husky voice and blonde beehive hairdo, has died at the age of 59.

Springfield, who had fought a long battle against breast cancer, died on Tuesday night at her home in Henley-on-Thames, west of London. Her cancer was first detected in 1994.

Born Mary O'Brien in London, she teamed up in the early 1960s with her brother Tom to form the Springfields, which became one of the country's top pop and folk acts. Once described as Britain's finest white soul singer, Springfield's 1963 solo debut, "I Only Want To Be With You," is now a pop classic.

Worldwide success came in 1966 with "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me," which sold a million copies to become her only British No. 1 hit. In 1968, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she recorded Dusty in Memphis, regarded by some critics as one of the decade's finest albums. At the same time she released her classic "Son-Of-A Preacher Man."

After disappearing from the charts, Springfield made a veiled admission in 1975 [sic] that she was bisexual and moved to Los Angeles. She recorded little, preferring to spend time with tennis star Billie Jean King and campaign for animal rights.

In the 1980s she found renewed success when she teamed up with Britain's Pet Shop Boys, who persuaded her to duet with them on their hit "What Have I Done To Deserve This?". The group also wrote the theme song to Scandal, the film of one of Britain's most notorious political scandals of the 1960s, which also became a hit for Springfield.

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South China Morning Post,
March 4, 1999