R.I.P. Nedra Talley Ross: Last surviving Ronettes member dead at 80

Ross was born in 1946 in New York and helped form the Ronettes at just 17. In 1967 she married DJ Scott Ross; the two remained together until his death in 2023. When she met him, Ross said she became a born-again Christian and left the Ronettes because, as she told the Christian Broadcasting Network in 2015, “there was nobody in the rock and roll world who was talking about Jesus.” 

The Ronettes formed in 1957 but initially struggled to reach a wide audience. In 1963, the group broke out after Estelle Bennett cold-called producer Phil Spector, whom Ronnie Spector would later marry and divorce following a high-profile legal battle. In 1964, the Ronettes released their only studio album, Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica, which included classics like “Be My Baby,” “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up,” and “Walking in the Rain.” The group split just three years later, but its legacy endured: their rendition of “Sleigh Ride” reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 this past January. 

In 2007, the Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. “They touched my heart right then and there,” he said of first hearing the group in 1964, “and they touch it still.” In the group’s acceptance speech, Ross spoke about the fulfillment of her and her cousins’ dreams. “We had a dream, but with a dream you need to have people behind you with your dream. For us, my mom knocked on doors when people didn’t want to hire and put under contract three young pretty girls that they said were going to change their minds down the road. I thank you for that—God knows what you’ve done. We had a family that gave us a core to help stabilize us in a very difficult crazy world. It was a fun time. I thank God.” 

Bennett died of colon cancer at age 67 in 2009, and Spector died after a short battle with cancer at age 78 in 2022.