Roberta Flack’s Ties to New Jersey

Born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and raised in Arlington, Virginia, the American singer was best known for her hits “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” among others. 

Among her many accomplishments, Flack started the Roberta Flack Foundation in 2010 in Princeton, NJ, with a mission to support animal welfare and music education. 

Flack’s publicist, Elaine Schock, released a statement on the singer’s passing. 

“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, Feb. 24, 2025. She died peacefully, surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”

Flack performed at the State Theatre in New Jersey five times, including a backstage meet-and-greet in 2014, which the State Theatre mentioned in a recent birthday post on their Facebook page in celebration of Flack on her birthday two weeks ago on Feb. 10.

After suffering from a stroke in 2016, she performed at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark in 2017 for the Black Girls Rock! Awards at the venue. 

In 2019, the Roberta Flack Foundation awarded grants to Shelectricty, a digital ecosystem meant to empower adolescent girls of color in the U.S. to reach their full potential, and to educator and filmmaker Carol Swainson to create a film to help white parents teach their children to interrupt the racial narrative found in music and other media. 

It was announced in 2022 that Flack was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, making it impossible for her to sing and forcing her into retirement. 

From 1972 through 2020, she won five Grammy awards for her music, including “For the First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” for Record of the Year and “Where is the Love” with Donny Hathaway for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus in 1973; “Killing Me Softly with His Song” for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Female in 1974; and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. 

Flack was also an advocate for gay rights, a member of the Artist Empowerment Coalition, which advocated for artist rights over their creative works, and a spokesperson for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for which she appeared in several commercials.