R&B Legend Teddy Pendergrass Passes Away At 59

R&B legend Teddy Pendergrass has passed away after a year-long battle with cancer at the age of 59.

According to reports, the singer passed away Wednesday (January 13).

Teddy Pendergrass, one of the most successful R&B singers of the 1970s and '80s, passed away yesterday after a battle with colon cancer. He was 59. Pendergrass was diagnosed with cancer last year and had a difficult time recovering from surgery; he died at Bryn Mawr Hospital outside of his native Philadelphia. (Rolling Stone)

The singer had break out fame in the 1970's.

Pendergrass broke out on his own in 1976, and became the first black male singer in history to record five consecutive multi-platinum albums. After playing to sold-out shows around the globe, tragedy struck in 1982 when he lost control of his Rolls-Royce and crashed on Wissahickon Drive, resulting in severe spinal chord damage and paralyzing him from the waist down. (Philadelphia Inquirer)