She was the quiet Ronette, the one people called the prettiest, the one who
was content to remain in the shadow of her younger sister, Ronnie, because even
in the shadow there’s still some spotlight.
For a few years in the mid-1960s Estelle Bennett lived a girl-group fairy
tale, posing for magazine covers with her fellow Ronettes and dating the likes
of George
Harrison and Mick
Jagger. Along with her sister and their cousin Nedra Talley, she helped
redefine rock ’n’ roll femininity.
The Ronettes delivered their songs’ promises of eternal puppy love in the
guise of tough vamps from the streets of New York. Their heavy mascara, slit
skirts and piles of teased hair suggested both sex and danger, an association
revived most recently by Amy
Winehouse.
But Ms. Bennett’s death last week at 67 revealed a post-fame life of illness
and squalor that was little known even to many of the Ronettes’ biggest fans. In
her decades away from the public eye she struggled with anorexia and
schizophrenia, and at times she had also been homeless, said her daughter, Toyin
Hunter.
“I want to know who my mother was,” Ms. Hunter, 37, said in an interview.
“From the time I was born she suffered with mental illness; I never really got
to know Estelle in a good mental state.”
Those who knew Ms. Bennett in her healthier days portray her as gentle and
intelligent, and as playing a critical part in the development of the Ronettes’
style. The eldest of the group, she worked at Macy’s and attended the Fashion
Institute of Technology, and the look she helped devise for the group was
all superlatives: bigger, badder and sexier than anybody. Racial ambiguity lent
an exotic element: the Bennett sisters had black, American Indian and Irish
blood; Ms. Talley was black, Indian and Puerto Rican.
“We called them the bad girls of the ’60s,” said the singer Darlene Love, who
met the Ronettes in 1962, a year before they became famous with “Be My Baby.”
“They had the really, really short skirts and they had big, big, big hair. Most
of the black entertainers of the ’60s didn’t look like that, but they wanted to
be separate from everybody else.”
By the time they met Phil
Spector and began recording with him in 1963, the Ronettes had their look
precisely calibrated. That August “Be My Baby” went to No. 2, and the Ronettes
were instant stars. When they toured Britain in 1964, the Rolling
Stones were an opening act.
But even in the early days there were signs that Estelle was fragile. When
their grandmother died in 1959, Estelle was shattered, said her cousin, now
known as Nedra Talley Ross.
“She was going to buy Mama knee warmers,” Ms. Talley Ross said, “and I
remember Estelle being so devastated — screaming, like she would never go on.
Just screaming for this thing that would never get done.”
After the Ronettes broke up, in 1966, and Ronnie married Mr. Spector, in
1968, Estelle was lost, Ms. Talley Ross said. She made several failed attempts
at a solo career, and when Ronnie Spector, who divorced Mr. Spector in 1974,
formed a new version of the Ronettes in the early ’70s it did not include either
of her former band mates. (Ms. Spector did not respond to messages left for
her.)
Meanwhile, Ms. Bennett was gradually becoming more ill. When she brought her
infant daughter to visit, Ms. Talley Ross said, she slept straight through the
baby’s crying. Not long after, Ms. Bennett was hospitalized with anorexia, and
her grip on reality continued to loosen. In recent years, Ms. Hunter said, she
sometimes wandered the streets of New York, telling people that she would be
singing with the Ronettes in a jazz club.
“Estelle had such an extraordinary life,” Ms. Talley Ross said. “To have the
fame, and all that she had at an early age, and for it all to come to an end
abruptly. Not everybody can let that go and then go on with life.”
In 1988 the Ronettes sued Mr. Spector for back royalties, and the suit
dragged on for 14 years. Part of the case was dismissed, but the three women won
the right to some royalties, and according to Jonathan Greenfield, Ms. Spector’s
husband, they received “in excess of $1 million.” After lawyers’ fees, Ms.
Hunter said, each woman took home about $100,000. Ms. Talley Ross said the
figure was a little higher.
During the litigation Ms. Love was called as a witness, and one day at court
she saw Estelle.
“She didn’t remember me,” Ms. Love said. “They cleaned her up and made her
look as well as possible. She wore white gloves. She looked the best she could
for somebody who lived on the street. It broke my heart.”
Her daughter and her cousin said they also helped her to look her best for
the Ronettes’ induction into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame two years ago. They were worried that the ceremony
would overwhelm her, so one of Ms. Spector’s current backup singers performed in
Ms. Bennett’s stead. But before the concert Ms. Bennett did give a brief
acceptance speech.
"I would just like to say thank you very much for giving us this award,” she
said. “I’m Estelle of the Ronettes. Thank
you.”