Rita Coolidge: Who Is Kris Kristofferson’s Ex-Wife?

Rita Coolidge is an American recording artist.

During the 1970s and 1980s, her songs were on Billboard magazine’s pop, country, adult contemporary, and jazz charts, and she won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician and then-husband Kris Kristofferson.

Coolidge was born in Lafayette, Tennessee. She is the daughter of Dick and Charlotte Coolidge, a minister and schoolteacher, with sisters Linda and Priscilla, and brother Raymond.

She is of Cherokee and Scottish ancestry. She attended Nashville’s Maplewood High School and graduated from Andrew Jackson Senior High School in Jacksonville, Florida. Coolidge is a graduate of Florida State University. She is a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority.

After singing around Memphis (including a stint singing jingles), Coolidge was discovered by Delaney & Bonnie, who worked with her in Los Angeles.

There, she became a backing singer for artists including Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Harry Chapin, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Dave Mason, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills.

She was featured in Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and album, singing Russell’s and Bonnie Bramlett’s song “Superstar”. Coolidge did not receive songwriting credits for “Superstar” which later became a hit for The Carpenters.

She became known as “The Delta Lady” and inspired Russell to write a song of the same name for her.