Former BET personality Angela Marie Stribling has died from brain cancer. She was 58.
Her husband Ken Washington shared news of her death on Instagram.
“It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved wife, Angela Marie Stribling, passed away peacefully at home on Saturday, September 26, after a courageous two-year battle with brain cancer,” her spouse of four years posted on Sunday.
Washington said that he and Stribling’s sister Darlene were by her side. A celebration of life in Washington, DC is being planned.
He said his wife “touched so many lives in such a beautiful way” as a host of BET’s Screen Scene and a longtime voice on WHUR-FM.
WHUR mourned the loss of her “warm, soothing voice [that] became part of the soundtrack of Washington-area radio for decades.”
The urban adult contemporary outlet remembered Stribling as the first female to host its soulful Original Quiet Storm programme, which launched at Howard University in 1976.
National audiences know Stribling from her work on BET in the 1990s. That also included launching Jazz Central, according to an online obituary.
The Buffalo native studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology before moving to the nation’s capital. The jazz singer and show host told Copa Style Magazine that a job working with American Airlines brought her to the DC area.
That’s where her career in media later took flight.
“When trying to figure out what career path to follow, many of my mentors and peers encouraged me to do something that involved my voice,” she said in that interview.
She recalled being teased as a child for being overly articulate. Her favourite musical artistes included Sarah Vaughn, Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder and Prince.
Stribling celebrated her final birthday on Facebook in October.
“I’m grateful to God for another year of LIFE!” she wrote. “Actually, I’m grateful for every single moment!”
She said the past year had been challenging due to health problems, but expressed gratitude for the life she was experiencing. – New York Daily News/TNS
