Can you pleases help me summarize this ( 10 pts)?

Odetta was more than just a singer. She used her classically trained voice and some guitar playing to channel the colorful and sometimes deeply sad stories that make up American folk music. Odetta influenced generations of musicians and became an icon in the civil rights struggle. She died on December 2, 2008, after battling heart disease. She was 77 years old.



Odetta's voice sang for many. The highly praised folk singer gave life to the songs of working people and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, African Americans and whites. She didn't just sing the notes in the songs. Odetta "became" the people in the songs and performed as though she felt what they felt.



"What distinguished [Odetta] from the start was the 鈥?care with which she tried to re-create the feeling of her folk songs [when she performed],'' Time magazine wrote in 1960.



Odetta's life began in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1930. She moved with her family to Los Angeles, California, when she was 6 years old. Odetta started studying music when she was 13 and later studied opera singing at Los Angeles City College, where she became interested in folk music. She came to prominence in the folk music world in the 1950s.



Odetta had not lived the lives of the people in her songs, but she was interested in their stories.





"I'm not a real folk singer,'' Odetta told The Washington Post in 1983. "I don't mind people calling me that, but I'm a musical historian. I'm a city kid who has admired an area and who got into it. I've been fortunate. With folk music, I can do my teaching and preaching 鈥?. ''



Odetta used music to preach messages of hope, justice, and humanity during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. She encouraged African Americans to take pride in themselves. In August 1963, she sang a song called "I'm on My Way" at the historic March on Washington, the civil rights demonstration where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.



During this time, folk music was experiencing a boom. Singers like Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan began performing and recording songs in which they expressed their views on civil rights and other issues of the day. They and many other folk superstars were influenced by Odetta.



"The first thing that [got me into] folk singing was Odetta," Dylan said in 1978.



Odetta released album after album of songs. She was considered for Grammys in the 1960s and as recently as 2005. In 1999, she was honored with a National Medal of the Arts. President Bill Clinton said her career showed "us all that songs have the power to change the heart and change the world.''





In spite of her failing health, Odetta performed 60 concerts in the last two years. Her singing ability never diminished. Neither did her enthusiasm for singing. In 1983, she said that for her, music was still a way to express hope and grief.





"There's always something to sing about," Odetta said.Can you pleases help me summarize this ( 10 pts)?
The first thing you want to do, in order to make this easier for you, is to summarize each paragraph seperately from each other. If the paragraph is small, you can merge it with the following or preceding paragraph as well. Try to break the main points of the paragraph into one or maybe two sentances. Personally, I would leave out irrelevant quotes (like the one in the third paragraph). Additionally, you want to keep everything flowing and chronological.



For the first paragraph I would put:



Odetta, an influential singer/songwriter and civil rights activist, Died on December 2, 2008.



For the second paragraph I would put:



Using her voice as a social motivator, Odetta brought the hard-boiled atmosphere of the 1950's to life.



Anyway, I hope this helps. I don't want to do you're homework for you. I just want to show you how to do it on your own. You'll feel better about it I think :DCan you pleases help me summarize this ( 10 pts)?
editCan you pleases help me summarize this ( 10 pts)?
Sorry that's just too much work, although if i had more time i would