Singer Tina Turner, native of tiny Nutbush, Tenn., dies at 83

Turner poses for a portrait in 1985. (Photo by 

Denize Alain, Sygma, Getty Images via CNN)

Tina Turner was born into poverty in rural West Tennessee. She first achieved musical success with her abusive husband Ike Turner, and later became a mid-life, single-act musical icon who earned the title "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll." She died Wednesday at age 83.

Born Anna Mae Bullock in the crossroads hamlet of Nutbush, Tenn., she met St. Louis band leader Ike Turner and married him in 1962. Turner was the lead singer in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, and the band released bold R&B tunes like "Nutbush City Limits" and famous covers like Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary." The couple achieved notable success opening for the Rolling Stones U.S. tour in 1969 and gaining a "certified gold" album in 1974 for "What You Hear Is What You Get." Still, the relationship soured as Ike became heavily addicted to cocaine. Tina divorced Ike in 1978.

Turner in 1970 (Wikipedia photo)

If the first half of Turner's performance career was dynamic, the second half, which began in the early 1980s, was a dynamite explosion of talent and musical energy that surprised the industry and rocketed Turner to her iconic status. In 1984, she crooned, churned and blasted audiences with her album Private Dancer, which sold over 10 million, won three Grammy awards. The album included her only number one hit, "What's Love Got to Do With It," a song that personified much of the Turner's saga of struggle and triumph.

Turner became a global star also known for her acting role alongside Mel Gibson in "Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome." In 2018, she received the Grammy Life Achievement Award. As Turner aged, she kept creating music, writing a musical, several books and collaborating with international artists. In October 2021, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She spent her last years in Zurich, Switzerland.

Here is The New York Times' list of Turner's "11 essential songs." From across the Atlantic, The Economist sees one state: "There are very few living American singers whose work springs from a distant, lost past. Dolly Parton, a titan of country music, was born in a one-room cabin by Little Pigeon River in Tennessee. Tina Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock, grew up in Nutbush, Tennessee, where her father oversaw sharecroppers; she had childhood memories of working in the cotton fields. Before she died on May 24, she was a link to the forces that shaped the blues and country and rock’n’roll." Here's Nutbush on a Google map: