9:27 AM PST- TMZ has learned … Donna died from lung cancer. Several sources are telling us Donna believed she contracted it by inhaling toxic particles after the 9/11 attack in New York City.
Donna Summer – the Queen of Disco — died this morning after a battle with cancer … TMZ has learned.
We’re told Summer was in Florida at the time of her death. She was 63 years old.
Sources close to Summer tell us … the singer was trying to keep the extent of her illness under wraps. We spoke to someone who was with Summer a couple of weeks ago … who says she didn’t seem too bad.
In fact, we’re told she was focused on trying to finish up an album she had been working on.
Summer was a 5-time Grammy winner who shot to superstardom in the ’70s with iconic hits like “Last Dance,” “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls.”
http://www.tmz.com/2012/05/17/donna-summer-dead-last-dance/
Hot Stuff singer Donna Summer is understood to have died this morning after a battle with cancer at 63.
The star, known as the Queen of Disco, passed away in Florida, according to TMZ.
Sources say she had attempted to keep the extent of her illness from fans and was recently trying to finish up her latest album.
The news has not yet been confirmed by her spokesperson.
Summers, real name LaDonna Gaines, is best know for her string of 70s hits, including I Feel Love, Last Dance and Bad Girls.
She was a five-time Grammy Award winner and the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the US Billboard chart.
She also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a thirteen-month period.
Summers married actor Helmuth Sommer in 1973 before giving birth to the couple’s daughter Mimi later that year.
Although the marriage crumbled in 1975, she kept an altered version of her ex’s surname to use as her stage name. She married Brooklyn Dreams musician Bruce Sudano in 1980 and the couple went on to have two daughters, Brooklyn, born in 1981 and Amanda the following year.
In 1994, the family moved from Los Angeles to Nashville where Donna took time out from showbusiness to focus on painting but had recently returned to the recording studio.
As well has staggering career highs, Summer also endured personal lows.
She suffered serious depression in the wake of September 11.
