Famous for her 5-octave voice and the song, Lovin' You, Minnie represented the finer end of 70s R&B. This was reflected in her fashion sense often wearing strapless or sleeveless silky, romantic dresses with side splits.
The 70s had dumped the fat crimpolene of the 60s and developed fabrics like satinised polyester which mixed with crêpe de Chine could look like real silk.
It was her solo album Perfect Garden ('74) worked on by Stevie Wonder that broke her into the mainstream. She loved flowers and had a trademark of adorning her hair with a delicate white bloom known as Baby's Breath.
Tragedy struck in '79 when the breast cancer she'd been fighting took her life, but not before she had become a renowned spokesperson for the American Cancer Society and won their 'Courage Award'.
Minnie had started out studying opera as a child, then joined a 60s soul girl group called The Gems. In '67 she hooked up with the psychedelic rock-soul band Rotary Connection that sang the original Black Gold of the Sun used by 4Hero and Masters at Work.
The late 60s was an era of Afghan coats, bell bottomed trousers and patchwork denims. Minnie wore Maxi (long) A-line dresses, a full Afro and fur-collared suede coats.
But after mid '75 (when the Vietnam War ended) hippy values evaporated to make way for the hedonistic 'forget-it-all' disco era of clubs like Studio 54, when everything became a lot more shiny...