MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
One of the best known voices of the 1960s is gone.
(Soundbite of song, "Please Mr. Postman")
T: Oh yes, wait a minute Mr. Postman, wait Mr. Postman.
NORRIS: Gladys Horton, co-founder and former lead singer of the Marvelettes, died last night at a California nursing home.
NPR's Allison Keyes has this remembrance.
ALLISON KEYES: Gladys Horton was just 15 when "Please Mr. Postman" rocketed onto the charts in 1961.
(Soundbite of song, "Please Mr. Postman")
THE MARVELETTES: There must be some word today from my boyfriend so far away. Please, Mr. Postman, look and see. Is there a letter, a letter for me?
KEYES: It was the first number one pop hit for the fledgling Motown label. Katherine Anderson Schaffner says the group got started at Inkster High School in suburban Detroit. She says Gladys got some fellow glee club members together when she heard about a talent show.
NORRIS: We sang in the talent show, but we didn't win.
KEYES: But the group still ended up auditioning at Motown. When the company asked them to come back with an original tune, they chose "Please Mr. Postman," and suddenly they had a huge hit. Schaffner says her friend was the heart of the group.
NORRIS: She was a very nice person, and she gave a lot and didn't ask for too much more than, you know, what she gave.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARVELETTES: (Singing) Beechwood 4-5789, you can call me up and have a date any old time.
KEYES: Horton sang lead for the group from 1961 through 1965 on hits including "Beechwood 4-5789" and "Playboy," before being replaced as lead by Wanda Young. But during their heyday, Horton and the Marvelettes made a huge mark.
NORRIS: They were the first girl group to become big stars at Motown.
KEYES: Billy Wilson is CEO of the Motown Alumni Association and says the Marvelettes not only pioneered the whole girl group concept, they were also touring without the benefit of the etiquette and grooming classes the record company used later to mold their acts into a polished product.
NORRIS: They had to get out there and buy their own clothes and, you know, create their own routines and almost everything. They had to do a lot of things by themselves.
KEYES: But Horton led them to a string of hits, keeping them on the charts consistently through most of the 1960s.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARVELETTES: (Singing) Look here girls, take this advice and remember always be nice. Into each heart, some tears must fall...
KEYES: Horton was born in 1944 in Detroit, Michigan, and raised by foster parents in suburban Inkster. She stayed with the Marvelettes from 1961 until 1967, when she left to have her first child.
In the 1980s, Gladys Horton did some gigs as Gladys Horton of the Marvelettes but had to first get the name back after Motown sold it. Katherine Schaffner says her friend was a fighter to the end.
NORRIS: She fought a good fight. I guess maybe last night she just gave up fighting.
KEYES: Gladys Horton was 66 years old. She is survived by two sons.
Allison Keyes, NPR News.