Odetta Holmes, a folk and blues singer often referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement,” as she was a fierce human rights activist, died on December 2, after battling heart disease. She was 77.

According to her manager, Douglas Yeager, Odetta passed away at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, following a 10-year struggle with chronic heart disease and pulmonary fibrosis. Douglas Yeager said in a statement that the artist’s glowing spirit and “volcanic voice from the heavens live on for the ages,” adding that her memorable voice “will never die.”

Odetta approached several musical genres throughout her career, including jazz, folk, spirituals and blues, and released dozens of albums. In addition, she appeared in films, such as 1961’s “Sanctuary” and 1974’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and did not stay away from rallies and protests that promoted the cause of civil rights.

Odetta hit the road even this year as a result of an important national tour that saw her revitalizing classics like “This Little Light of Mine (I’m Gonna Let It Shine)” and Lead Belly’s “The Bourgeois Blues.” Her last performance took place in Toronto a couple of months ago.

She initially gained widespread popularity in the 1950s and her music influenced artists such as Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.

In 1999, she received a National Medal of the Arts and the back-then U.S. President, Bill Clinton, said that her figure proved to everybody that music can “change the heart,” as well as the world.

Odetta was nominated for a 1963 Grammy prize in the best folk recording category for her album, “Odetta Sings Folk Songs” and received two more Grammy nominations in 1999 and 2005.

The singer is survived by a daughter, Michelle Esrick, and a son, Boots Jaffre.