The folk and blues singer, Odetta Holmes, who championed black history and civil rights, died at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York on Tuesday.

According to her manager, Douglas Yeager, at least three times in the past ten years, Odetta – who was afflicted for years with heart and lung ailments - appeared to be on the brink of death. Of late, her hope to sing at the January 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama had helped keep her alive for weeks when medical experts had despaired of her prospects for survival.

Odetta Holmes was born in Birmingham, Ala., on December 31, 1930. Her father died when she was young, and she moved to Los Angeles at the age of six, with her mother, sister and stepfather.

Although Los Angeles was not as overtly racist as the Deep South, Odetta did suffer some of the same indignities that came with being black. She told The Times some years ago: “We lived within walking distance of Marshall High School, but they didn’t let colored people go there, so we had to go by bus to Belmont High School.”

She attended Los Angeles City College after high school and earned a degree in music.

With a repertoire that included 19th century slave songs and spirituals, as well as the topical ballads of such 20th century folk icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Odetta became one of the most beloved figures in folk music. In 1999, she was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. In 2004, she was a Kennedy Center honoree. A year later, the Library of Congress honored her with its Living Legend Award.

Odetta was said to have influenced the emergence of artists as varied as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin and Tracy Chapman.