pancreas cancer : Spanish singer Rocío Jurado dies after long illness

Rocío Jurado, a well-known and much loved Spanish singer from Andalucía, died at her Madrid home early on Thursday morning after a long illness. The 61-year-old singer had been diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas two years ago and had been treated at Houston, Texas.
Her brother and manager, Amador Mohedano, visibly affected by his sister’s death, made the announcement to the media waiting outside the singer’s home at La Moraleja. He added that she had died “peacefully” and “surrounded by her family as she wished”.

After a private wake in her home, at 11.17 on Thursday morning her body arrived under police escort at Madrid Cultural Centre for the general public to pay their last respects to the singer considered the greatest in the country in her genre. Her coffin was covered with the Spanish and the Andalusian flags. Her remains are to be flown to Jerez de la Frontera airport and then transferred to Chipiona, her birthplace, by road today, Friday, for burial in San José Cemetery at 5 p.m.

Flags on the Cadiz Provincial Government building were at half-mast, as they were in Chipiona, where the Mayor, Manuel García, announced three days of mourning for the singer

Rocío Mohedano Jurado was born in 1945 in the town of Chipiona, in the province of Cadiz, and started her career singing flamenco, especially fandangos, before branching out into a more popular style. In her youth she also worked as an actress in a number of Spanish-style musical films - extremely popular in their day. Her fame and success as a singer spread to Latin America and the USA..

In 1986 she was awarded the Andalusian Medal for exceptional merit and services to the region.

In her personal life she was married first to boxer Pedro Carrasco, by whom she had a daughter, Rocío, and second, in 1995, to classical bullfighter José Ortega Cano from Cartagena, Murcia. The couple adopted a boy and a girl in 1999 and the singer also had two grandchildren, the children of her elder daughter.

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