For decades on records and the radio airwaves, you’ve heard the high notes sung by Rosalind Ashford-Holmes: “Dancing in the Street.” “Heat Wave.” “Jimmy Mack.” “Nowhere to Run.”
Ashford-Holmes, a Detroit native who went on to international success with Motown’s Martha and the Vandellas, died in Redford on Tuesday, Sept. 15, of natural causes. She was 83.
As a member of the Vandellas, one of Motown’s signature groups, Ashford-Holmes was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, one of many career honors that included the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress’s national registry.
“I am deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Rosalind Ashford,” Martha Reeves said in a statement to the Detroit Free Press. “Rosalind played an
important part in the early days of Martha and the Vandellas. Her voice will forever be with us through our great recordings together, and she will be missed, but never forgotten. Our Motown family has just gotten a little smaller. My heart is heavy.”
A natural soprano who graduated from Wilbur Wright High School on the city’s west side, Ashford-Holmes first made headway on the Detroit scene in the late 1950s with the vocal group the Del-Phis, later the Vels, who released a handful of singles with Chicago’s Chess Records after linking up with fellow Motor City singer Reeves.
At the fast-rising Motown Records back home in Detroit, Ashford-Holmes and her singing partners were tapped for backing roles on studios sessions in the early '60s for Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye and others.
Roz, as she was long known among friends, soon shot to success when Motown chief Berry Gordy put Reeves out front for the trio dubbed Martha and the Vandellas, with Ashford-Holmes on backing vocals alongside Annette Beard, who was replaced in 1965 by Betty Kelly. The group's breakout hit, "Come and Get These Memories," launched a hit career that would include nearly two dozen Top 40 singles on Billboard's R&B chart.
As Motown made its way into pop music's mainstream, Martha and the Vandellas became one of the Detroit label’s A-list groups across America and Europe.
Ashford-Holmes remained with the group through 1969. Despite well-known bad blood between her and Reeves in the decades that followed, the two recently made peace, multiple sources told the Free Press.
In her life after the Motown spotlight, Ashford-Holmes enjoyed traveling and spending time with friends and family, said her son, Damon Holmes. From the 1980s onward, she would occasionally link up with her longtime singing companion Annette Beard to perform as the Original Vandellas.
Pat Cosby, a former Motown staffer and longtime friend of Ashford-Holmes, said the late singer was part of a Motown circle that regularly gathered at a Southfield restaurant to reminisce.
"The memories are still precious," Cosby said. "We had good times while we could."
Martha Reeves had a rare public reunion today with the original members of the Vandellas — Rosalind Ashford-Holmes and Annette Beard — to dedicate the new Dancing in the Street Park next to the @Motown_Museum. pic.twitter.com/lmN9Mx51js
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) May 20, 2019
Funeral arrangements for Rosalind Ashford-Holmes are pending but will be held at James H. Cole Funeral Home on Schaefer Highway in Detroit.
She is survived by her son, Damon Holmes, four grandchildren and a daughter-in-law.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Motown's Rosalind Ashford, Detroit native and Vandellas star, has died
