Twenty-five years ago today, Phyllis Hyman was scheduled to perform at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. She was to join R&B vocal quartet The Whispers for their 30th anniversary celebration, but the group learned upon their arrival for sound check that Hyman was ill and might cancel her performance.
Hyman, who battled bipolar disorder, had overdosed that afternoon on pentobarbital and secobarbital in her New York City apartment at 211 West 56th Street. She was found unconscious at 2:00 p.m., and died three hours later at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital. She was six days shy of her 46th birthday. Her suicide note read in part:.”I’m tired. I’m tired. Those of you that I love know who you are. May God bless you.”
In this EUR Video Throwback, we take a closer look at the years leading up to Hyman’s final moments. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jenice Armstrong wrote of her death in 2007, “In addition to battling bipolar disorder, Hyman also suffered from drug and food addictions as well as alcoholism. She’d entered drug rehabilitation facilities a couple of times, but couldn’t stay clean for long. At the time of her death, her weight had ballooned to more than 300 pounds and she was experiencing financial difficulties.”
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Hyman spoke openly about her emotional highs and lows in an interview with EbonyJet.com.
The night of Hyman’s death, the Apollo show went on as scheduled. The Washington Post reported that her band members performed and sang her songs, “and comforted some of the singer’s relatives who had come to celebrate her birthday.”
Initially, the Whispers were going to pull out of the show, believing that performing the up-tempo parts of their set, including “And the Beat Goes On” and “Rock Steady,” would be inappropriate under the circumstances. But a few words from an Apollo employee ultimately brought them onstage. “She told me that Phyllis would have wanted us to go on, and I think that’s true,” group member Walter Scott told the Post. Below, Hyman’s lone recorded collaboration with The Whispers, “Suddenly,” from The Whispers’ 1984 album “So Good.”
Source: Phyllis Hyman: Final Hours Remembered on the Anniversary of Her 1995 Death [EUR Video Throwback]
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