Obituaries in brief

Marie Knight

The gospel singer Marie Knight, who died in Harlem on 6 September aged 84, came to prominence touring with Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the 1940s and singing hits such as "Beams of Heaven."

Knight, born in 1925 in Sanford, Florida, and raised in Newark, New Jersey, began touring the national gospel circuit with the evangelist Frances Robinson. In 1946, she got together with Tharpe, the two becoming the most popular gospel artists of the 1940s with hits including "Didn't it Rain" and "Up Above My Head". They toured throughout the 1950s. In 1965 Knight had a hit with a cover of "Cry Me A River".

She began a comeback in 2002, working on a tribute to Tharpe. In 2007 Let Us Get Together was her first full-length album in more than 25 years.