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Pop Singer-Turned Evangelist 'Vanity' Dies at 57
Vanity, the 1980s pop singer who gave her life to Christ, has died from kidney failure and an intestinal illness.
Denise Katrina Matthews was lead singer of the group Vanity 6, which had a major hit in the 80s and toured with megastar Prince.
In the 1990s, Matthews made her way to Hollywood, appearing in the films "Action Jackson," "The Last Dragon," and "52 Pick-Up."
She also battled drug addiction, suffering an overdose in 1994 that destroyed her kidneys and left her on dialysis.
Denise Matthews shared her powerful testimony in an interview from 1992 with 700 Club Co-host Ben Kinchlow:
But in the mid-1990s she gave her life to Christ, kicked drugs, and left the entertainment industry.
"Eternal life is what we reach for, no more tears, pain or sorrow and everlasting joy in God," Matthews told The Fix, a sober living magazine. "Hell is equivalent to pain, and who digs pain forever? I had to wake up and be smarter than that."
She became an evangelist and eventually was ordained as a minister, preaching in churches around the country.
TMZ reports she was in church last Sunday and told the congregation she was ready to go home.