Dead In LA

Vesta Williams, age 53, died of a drug overdose in a hotel room in El Segundo, California on September 22, 2011. There were several bottles of prescription drugs found in her room, and some of them were empty. The autopsy would decide it for sure, but officials were pretty certain.

Vesta was a rhythm and blues singer who came from Ohio but moved to Los Angeles when she was young to be a part of a singing group. Later she moved back to Ohio and sang with an R&B group called “Wild Honey” that featured her cousin Ron Townsend. She sang back-up for Chaka Khan and Luther Vandross and then in 1986 she got her first hit, called, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.”

Her most famous and often played song was called “Congratulations.” Part of the lyrics say:

Saw an old friend on the street, She said today’s your wedding
My heart stopped, The tears dropped

Congratulations, I thought it would have been me
Standin’ here with you
Congratulations, I hope you’re happy

No doubt that when she penned these words she didn’t expect that her whole life would pass by so soon.

That’s the tragedy about prescription drugs. A lot of people have gotten hooked on them and taken just a few too many without intending to die. Others have seen the bottles sitting there, and suddenly seen them as a way out of their current problems.

They certainly didn’t do Vesta any good. She had a number of hit songs, and she was planning a new album to be released in the near future. She had some fans and some people who cared about her, and while 53 is not 33, it certainly isn’t close to 70 either. There was still time to make her dreams come true.

“’Cause as long as I can breathe, you’ll always be the one for me, oh, oh.”
Prescription drugs take your breath away.