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Entity shares the life of Sharon Jones.Photo by Manuel Nauta/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

American soul and funk singer Sharon Jones died on Friday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 60. To commemorate her life and contributions to the music industry, here are some of her greatest accomplishments.

NAME: Sharon Lafaye Jones

LIFETIME: May 4, 1956 – November 18, 2016

WHAT SHE’S KNOWN FOR: Sharon Jones went from working as a prison guard on Rikers Island to being hailed as a “timeless soul singer” by The New York Times. Her lifestyle as a guard changed after she sang backup for Lee Fields in 1996. However, she didn’t reach breakthrough success until she was 40 years old, when Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings released their first record.

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After releasing the album “Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings” in 2002, the group received immediate attention from DJs and collectors for their classic sound. They later produced other albums, including “Naturally” (2005) and “100 Days, 100 Nights” (2007). For their work, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings are regarded by many critics as fan as the people who spearheaded the revival of soul and funk. In 2014, her record “Give the People What They Want” was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best R&B Album.

WHY WE LOVE HER: Jones recorded six albums with the Dap-Kings, but it was her exhilarating live shows that people remember most. These shows “functioned as equal parts Baptist church revival, Saturday night juke joint and raucous 1970s Las Vegas revue,” Rolling Stone writes. The singer was a dynamic performer and she commanded the crowd with power, humility and funk.

“I’m not trying to ride anybody’s coattails,” Jones said in 2008. “I’m just doing my thing and people are coming to us.”

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FUN FACTS: Jones’ love for singing began at an early age, when she started singing in church with her sister Willa. Throughout her life, she pursued her dreams by starting numerous funk groups in the 1970s and performing in wedding bands. She worked as an armored car guard for Wells Fargo and a corrections officer at Rikers Island prison after being told by a record producer that she was “too fat, too black, too short and too old.”

Thankfully for her fans, however, she went back to singing because now she’s heralded as the Female James Brown, her idol.

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