Barbara McNair Died

Singer and actress Barbara McNair, who starred opposite Elvis Presley and Sidney Poitier and became one of the first black women to host her own television variety show, has died at 72, her husband said on Monday. McNair died on Sunday after a long battle with throat cancer, husband Charles Blecka told Reuters. McNair, who started singing in church as a girl, was still performing as recently as late last year.

Along with Mary Tyler Moore and Jane Elliott Barbara McNair played opposite Presley in his last movie, 1969's "Change of Habit." McNair, Moore and Elliott all played nuns and Presley portrayed a doctor.