Signe Toly Anderson ( ; born Signe Toly; September 15, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American singer who was one of the founding members of the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the San Francisco Bay Area, ...

Early life

Signe Toly was born in Seattle, Washington on September 15, 1941. Her parents divorced when she was three, and her mother raised her in Portland, Oregon. Toly sang in a band with three male musicians she had known in high school, under the name Three Guys and a Gal. The group performed at a campaign event for

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

in November 1959.

Jefferson Airplane

Toly was a locally-known and well-respected jazz and folk singer in San Francisco, where

Marty Balin Martyn Jerel Buchwald (January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018), known as Marty Balin (), was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. Early life Balin was born Martyn Je ...

heard her perform and invited her to join his band, soon named

. Soon after joining the Airplane, Signe married one of the Merry Pranksters, Jerry Anderson; the marriage lasted from 1965 to 1974. She sang on the first Jefferson Airplane album '' Jefferson Airplane Takes Off'', most notably on the song " Chauffeur Blues". Anderson distrusted the Airplane's original manager Matthew Katz and refused to sign a contract with him until he inserted a special escape clause that would free her from him if she left the band for any reason. In July 1966, Anderson informed Bill Graham that she was quitting the band after a series of shows they were playing in Chicago; she had given birth to her and Jerry's first child and realized that taking a newborn on the road was not feasible. However, Graham asked her to stay with the band through the October shows at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, to which she agreed. This gave the band time to search for her successor, eventually choosing

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American painter and retired musician whose musical career spanned four decades. She was a prominent figure in San Francisco's psychedelic music scene during the mid-1960s to the earl ...

after Sherry Snow declined their offer. Anderson's last live performances with Jefferson Airplane were two sets on October 15, 1966, at The Fillmore. Both performances were recorded (as were most Fillmore shows) and have surfaced on some bootleg albums. At what seemed to be the end of the second set,

announced that Anderson was leaving the group. Her farewell to the audience was: "I want you all to wear smiles and daisies and box balloons. I love you all. Thank you and goodbye." At several fans' requests, Anderson and the band performed her signature number "Chauffeur Blues". They finished the night with " High Flying Bird". In August 2010, Collector's Choice music in cooperation with Sony released this show as ''Live at The Fillmore Auditorium 10/15/66: Late Show – Signe's Farewell''.

Later life

After leaving the Airplane, Anderson returned to Oregon, where she sang for nine years with Carl Smith and the Natural Gas Company. In the mid-1970s, she recovered from cancer. In 1977, she married local building contractor Michael Alois Ettlin, and continued to sing with Carl Smith. In the mid-1990s, Anderson suffered more health problems, including a broken neck and bypass surgery, which led to serious financial problems for her family. She made guest appearances with the KBC Band and

Jefferson Starship Jefferson Starship is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1974 by a group of musicians including former members of Jefferson Airplane. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight RIAA certification, gold or Music rec ...

. Anderson's husband Michael Alois Ettlin died at 62 on February 21, 2011.

Death

Anderson died at her home in

Beaverton, Oregon Beaverton is a city in the Tualatin Valley, located in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon, with a small portion bordering Portland. The city is among the main cities that make up the Portland metropolitan area. Its population was ...

, at the age of 74 on January 28, 2016, from the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). She died a few hours after Jefferson Airplane co-founder

Paul Kantner Paul Lorin Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and a secondary vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture of ...

died, also at age 74. Her former bandmate

Jorma Kaukonen Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. (; ; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane, and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bassist ...

wrote a public tribute honoring her, stating: "Signe was one of the strongest people I have ever met. She was our den mother in the early days of the Airplane...a voice of reason on more occasions than one... an important member of our dysfunctional little family. I always looked forward to seeing her when we played the

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

in Portland. She never complained and was always a joy."

References

External links

Anderson's biography of the Jefferson Airplane website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Signe Toly 1941 births 2016 deaths American women rock singers Jefferson Airplane members Singers from Portland, Oregon Deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Respiratory disease deaths in Oregon 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers