Rita Coolidge (born May 1, 1945) is an American recording artist and songwriter. During the 1970s and 1980s, she charted hits on Billboard's pop, country, adult contemporary and jazz charts[1] and won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician Kris Kristofferson. Coolidge was born in Lafayette, Tennessee. Coolidge attended Nashville's Maplewood High School. She graduated from Andrew Jackson Senior High in Jacksonville, Florida. She is a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. She is of Scottish and Cherokee ancestry Coolidge is a graduate of Florida State University. After singing around Memphis (including a stint singing jingles), she was discovered by Delaney & Bonnie, who took her to Los Angeles where, besides her work with Delaney & Bonnie, she became a popular background singer on many other people's albums. She sang for Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Dave Mason, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills. She was featured in Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and album, singing Russell's and Bonnie Bramlett's song "Superstar." She became known as "The Delta Lady" and inspired Russell to write a song of the same name for her. In November 1970, she met Kris Kristofferson at the Los Angeles airport when they were both catching the same flight to Tennessee and he got off in Memphis with her rather than go on to his originally intended stop in Nashville; the two married in 1973. With him, she recorded several duet albums which sold well, and earned the duo a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1974 for "From the Bottle to the Bottom", and in 1976 for "Lover Please". Coolidge's greatest success on the pop charts came during 1977-1978 with four consecutive top 25 hits: covers of Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher", Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone", and The Temptations' "The Way You Do The Things You Do", followed by "You". Coolidge also was among the first hosts on VH1. In 2006, Coolidge recorded a standards album, And So Is Love. Coolidge was the daughter of " Dick" and Charlotte Coolidge, a minister and schoolteacher, with sisters Linda and Priscilla, and brother Raymond.[7] Coolidge was married to Kris Kristofferson from 1973 to 1980. They have one daughter, Casey. Coolidge previously had romantic liaisons with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash; her leaving Stills for Nash has been cited as a contributing factor behind the initial 1970 breakup of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.[8] She was also involved with Leon Russell and Joe Cocker during their Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Coolidge married Tatsuya Suda on June 19, 2004 in the Cook Islands. Coolidge now lives in Fallbrook, California.