Born: 31 December 1948, United States
Died: 17 May 2012
Country most active: United States
Also known as: La Donna Andrea Gaines, Adrian Donna Gaines
The following is republished with permission from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines in Dorchester in 1948, she grew up in the Mission Hill neighborhood. As a young girl, she sang gospel music at the Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston. Summer attended the Burke until a few months before graduation, when she left to pursue her music career. In 1983, she returned to the school and was awarded her high school diploma. School officials credited her life experience and coursework in drama and voice toward her unfulfilled graduation requirements. Summer’s career had taken off in the mid-1970s when she became widely known as the Queen of Disco. She won five Grammys and sold more than one hundred million records worldwide. Her memoir, Ordinary Girl, co-authored with Marc Eliot, was published in 2003.