Dinah Washington: A Queen in Turmoil Before her death at 39 in 1963, singer Dinah Washington battled her seven husbands, her weight and even her fans. But when she sang, nothing else mattered.

In 1963, not long after moving to Roulette Records, Washington died at home in Detroit at the age of 39. News reports described the cause as a seemingly accidental overdose of alcohol and pills.

Dinah Washington was only 39 when she died of an accidental overdose of barbiturates in 1963. Yet in her short life she was one of the most successful of all jazz singers, also crossing into blues ...