She was born in Memphis, Tennessee (US) in 1937. She studied voice under Zelma Lee Thomas and Samuel Margolis, as well as her husband, Wiley Tatum. She made her stage debut in 1963 as Aida at Oper Saarbruecken, Germany. She won Gold Medal at the International Opera Competition in Sofia, Bulgaria. She made her La Scala Milan debut in 1966 as Senta [The Flying Dutchman/Der Fliegende Holländer], while she appeared at San Francisco Opera in 1969 as Leonora [The power of fate/La forza del destino] and Metropolitan Opera New York (Met) in the title role of Turandot in 1973. She joined the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as staff member in 1964 and the Met in 1973. She appeared at many major opera houses in the Americas and Europe, including Buenos Aires, Montreal, Vancouver, Dallas, Houston, Vienna, Brussels, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Budapest, Parma Bucharest, Geneva, Zurich, Zagreb, etc. Her repertoire includes dramatic soprano roles in the operas: Fidelio, Norma, Alceste, La Gioconda, Tosca, Genoveva, Ariadne auf Naxos, Macbeth, Nabucco, Tannhäuser, Otello, Parsifal, Die Walküre, Siegfried, etc. She made several appearances in operatic films for the French television (ORTF). She made a limited number of recordings (DECCA). She collaborated with the GNO once, as Ariadne [Ariadne on Naxos/Ariadne auf Naxos] (Olympia Theater, 1975/75).