LOS ANGELES — Janis Hunter Gaye, the second wife of Motown legend Marvin Gaye and mother of two of his children, has died, her family said in a statement. She was 66.
Jan Gaye, who sang backup on Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up,” died Saturday at home in Rhode Island. No cause of death was given.
“From the time she met my father, she was exposed to the way he saw this world was aching, and she did her best to preserve his legacy as he was taken from us far too early,” Nona Gaye said in a statement, after noting how “deeply saddened” she was by her mother’s passing. “She took every moment to speak about every word and every note of his music, and she wanted to make sure everyone knew the man she fell in love with.”
