Article Contributed by Dennis McNally
Published on November 3, 2025
Jerry Garcia Band, Greenpeace benefit, – $5 admission. Aug. 12, 1977, Jerry Garcia Band, Greenpeace benefit, – $5 admission, Pier 31 at the Embarcadero, San Francisco – photo by Alan Sheckter
Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, former vocalist with the Grateful Dead, passed away surrounded by her family on November 2, 2025, at Alive Hospice in Nashville after a lengthy struggle with cancer.
She is survived by her husband David MacKay, her son Kinsman MacKay and his wife Molly, her son Zion Godchaux and his son Delta, her sister Gogi Clark, and her brother Ivan Thatcher.
Born Donna Jean Thatcher in Florence, Alabama, she became a session singer in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and sang on two #1 songs: Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds.” Moving to California, she met and married pianist Keith Godchaux. She met the Dead’s Jerry Garcia and introduced herself to him. Soon after, first Keith and then Donna Jean were part of the band. From 1971 to 1979 they toured America, Europe, and even Egypt.
Sometime after Keith’s passing in a car accident, she married again—to David MacKay—in 1981. Returning to Muscle Shoals, she remained active in music with the Donna Jean Godchaux Band in partnership with her bassist husband David MacKay.
She was a sweet and warmly beautiful spirit, and all those who knew her are united in loss. The family requests privacy at this time of grieving.
In the words of Robert Hunter, “May the four winds blow her safely home.”
Read more Grateful Dead tributes and stories on Grateful Web.
