Estelle Bennett ✝

Estelle Bennett (July 22, 1941 – February 11, 2009) was an American singer. Bennett was a member of the girl group the Ronettes, along with her sister Ronnie and cousin Nedra Talley. Bennett and her sister, Veronica (later known as Ronnie Bennett and Ronnie Spector), were raised in New York City. They were children of an Irish-American father and African-American/Cherokee mother; they said they were bullied at school because of being light-skinned African Americans. Bennett attended George Washington High School in Manhattan where she was valedictorian. Studious and interested in fashion, she studied at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology. When Bennett was 14, she and her sister Ronnie, and their cousin Nedra Talley started singing together. After a number of unsuccessful attempts, the trio reinvented themselves as the Ronettes. Signed up by 23-year-old Phil Spector, Ronnie became lead, with Estelle and Nedra as backing. They would eventually have a No.1 hit song in 1963, "Be My Baby".