Roberta Flack Dead at 88

by Alex Miller

American singer and pianist Roberta Flack passed away February 24, 2025, just weeks after her 88^th birthday.  A notable figure in 1970s popular music whose style bridged R&B, jazz and folk, Flack contributed such well-known hits as “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” and “The Closer I Get to You.”  The four-time Grammy winner was also given a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.  She retired in 2022 after an ALS diagnosis left her unable to perform.

Setting the stage for her loss was a transiting conjunction of asteroids Singer and Osiris, named for the Egyptian god of the dead, in effect for several months, contributory to the passing of such vocal luminaries as Peter Yarrow (of “Peter, Paul and Mary”) on 1 January; Wayne Osmond (of “The Osmonds”) on 7 January; and Marianne Faithfull on 30 January.  The similar rates of movement of asteroids means that, once locked in resonance, they can remain so for extended periods.  As the Sun moved into this zone in late February, enhancing focus and visibility, the pace of singer mortality increased, including Jerry Butler (of “The Impressions”) on the 20^th and Chris Jasper (of “The Isley Brothers”) on the 23^rd. 

When Roberta Flack passed on February 24^th, the Sun at 6 Pisces conjoined Singer at 11 Pisces and Osiris at 16 Pisces, with Singer in an increasingly vulnerable position, due to further aspects to additional death indicators.  These include a precise sextile (60 degrees) to asteroid Rip (“RIP”) at 11 Capricorn and an exact square (90 degrees) to Jupiter at 11 Gemini, itself conjoined asteroid Requiem at 16 Gemini.  The Jupiter/Requiem pairing speaks generally to celebrity (Jupiter) deaths (with Requiem named for the funeral mass for the dead), while the square to Singer increases the body count for famous musicians specifically.

Identifying Roberta Flack as at particular risk is asteroid Roberta, which at 4 Aries conjoins asteroid Anubis (Egyptian deity ruling funerary rites) at 29 Pisces, as well as Venus at 10 Aries (ruling entertainers) and Neptune at 28 Pisces (ruling music and singers).  As well, Roberta also connects with asteroid Atropos at 21 Leo, named for the mythic Greek Fate who severs the thread of life at death, by sesquiquadrate aspect (135 degrees), doubling down on the theme of mortality for a much-loved singer.

Title Image Credit by Wikimedia Commons