Linda Womack

Linda Womack
Born	(1953-04-25)April 25, 1953 (aged 64) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupations	Singer songwriter

Linda Womack (née Cooke; born April 25, 1953), now known as Zeriiya Zekkariyas, is an American singer and songwriter.

Biography

Womack is the daughter of Sam Cooke,considered the father of soul music, and with her husband Cecil Womack had a successful recording career under the name Womack & Womack. Their first album Love Wars proved a critical hit on the Elektra label. "Baby I'm Scared of You" was a Top 40 R&B single. Other albums included Radio M.U.S.I.C. Man (Elektra 1985), Starbright (Manhattan EMI 1986), Conscience (Island 1988) and Family Spirit on Arista/RCA in 1991. The 1993 album Transformation Into The House Of Zekkariyas was their last as Womack & Womack.

Womack, in partnership with Cecil, gained renown as a songwriter of soul songs in the late seventies and eighties, with "Woman's Gotta Have It", co-written with her stepfather and brother-in-law Bobby Womack and Darryl Carter; "Love T.K.O.", recorded by Teddy Pendergrass; "Love Bankrupt", released by Patti LaBelle; and the ballad "New Day" by soul singer and jazz guitarist, George Benson. Linda's 1988 single "Teardrops" from the album Conscience, which was a worldwide hit on radios and dance-floors everywhere. The song, written by Linda and Cecil (as Womack and Womack) featured Linda on lead vocals.

In the 1990s, she and her family moved to South Africa. She records with her seven children as "The House of Zekkariyas". Her husband died on January 25, 2013 in South Africa, aged 65.

External links

• Review/Rock; Womacks:Songs of Life, The New York Times; accessed January 2, 2014.