DETROIT — Detroiter, singer and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Rosalind Ashford-Holmes has died at age 83.

She was an original member of Martha and the Vandellas, one of the biggest hitmakers for Motown Records in the 1960s. Ashford-Holmes sang on the iconic, chart-topping tunes "Heat Wave," "Nowhere to Run," "Jimmy Mack" and others.

Ashford-Holmes was also a member of the pre-Vandellas group, the Del-Phis.

Her former bandmate Martha Reeves posted some thoughts on Facebook Wednesday night, saying "my heart is heavy."

"I am deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Rosalind Ashford," Reeves wrote. "Rosalind played an important part in the early days of Martha and the Vandellas. Her voice will forever be with us through our great recordings together, and she will be missed, but never forgotten."

"Our Motown Family has just gotten a little smaller," she added.

Ashford-Holmes was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 with the Vandellas. The RRHOF's social media accounts posted an "in memoriam" tribute to the singer Thursday morning, calling the Vandellas "a fiery girl group with an unyielding R&B edge."

According to a Detroit News article, Ashford-Holmes worked as a computer systems specialist for Michigan Bell in the 1980s. The news report detailed that she and two other Vandellas — Annette Beard-Sterling and Betty Kelley — were suing Motown Records over unpaid royalties. They would sue the label again in the 1990s over unpaid royalties.

"It's about 15 years since I've gotten anything," she told The Detroit News in 1986. "We weren't really aware that we should have been getting royalties all along from television, movies, and they have re-released a lot of the records."

In the 2000s Ashford-Holmes performed as the Original Vandellas with Beard-Sterling, Tonya Hood and others.

She was featured on a commemorative U.S. postage stamp in 2000 with Reeves and Beard-Sterling, and the group was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2013.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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