Deniece Williams

June Deniece Williams (née Chandler; born June 3, 1950) is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC.

She is best known for the songs "Free", "Silly", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" and two Billboard Hot 100 No.1 singles "Let's Hear It for the Boy" and "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" (with Johnny Mathis).

Williams has won four Grammys with twelve nominations altogether. She (with Johnny Mathis) is also known for recording "Without Us", the theme song of Family Ties.

She attended Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, in the hopes of becoming a registered nurse and an anesthetist, but she dropped out after a year and a half. She recalled, "You have to be a good student to be in college, and I wasn't."

Williams started performing while a college student, "a part-time job singing at a club, Casino Royal, and I liked it. It was a lot of fun." During those years, she also worked at a telephone company and as a ward clerk at the Chicago Mercy Hospital.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.