Funeral services were pending today for singer Patti Page, a North County music legend best known for "The Tennessee Waltz.''
Page died at an Encinitas nursing home Tuesday at age 85, according to NBC7/39. She had been set to receive a lifetime achievement honor at the Grammy Awards next month -- as was longtime Encinitas resident Ravi Shankar, an Indian sitar virtuoso who died Dec. 11, just one day before it was announced he would be recognized at the Grammys in February.
Page, a four-decade resident of Rancho Santa Fe, sold more than 100 million records during her career and won a Grammy Award in 1999.
In September, she wrote a letter to her fans on her website, misspattipage.com, in which she said she was battling unspecified "severe medical challenges'' that kept her from venturing beyond the North County area.
"Although I feel I still have the voice God gave me, physical impairments are preventing me from using that voice as I had for so many years,'' Page wrote. "It is only He who knows what the future holds.''
Page, whose real name was Clara Ann Fowler, was born in Oklahoma in 1927. She signed with Mercury Records 21 years later after being discovered singing in Tulsa.
According to her biography, her first million-seller was "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming," recorded in 1950. "The Tennessee Waltz'' was released one year later.
She made numerous guest appearances on television variety programs and headlined several shows of her own.
According to the Internet Movie Database, she was the adoptive mother of two children.
