PHILADELPHIA — Astrud Gilberto, the singer synonymous with “The Girl From Ipanema,” grew up in Brazil and traveled the world as an ambassador of the gently intoxicating bossa sound created by her first husband, João Gilberto.
But when she died on June 5, Gilberto, 83, was far from her native country. She was at home in the Society Hill Towers in Old City, where her son Gregory Lasorsa said she died of what is believed to be a heart attack.
The rumors, it turned out, were true: Since 1999, Gilberto had been quietly living in her 14th floor apartment with a view of the Delaware River. The internationally renowned artist had given up stardom to live anonymously in a city where she had a history reaching back nearly six decades.
