WASHINGTON (TNND) — Roberta Flack, a Grammy-winning singer known for "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," died Monday. She was 88.

Her publicist, Elaine Shock, confirmed the news in a statement saying "She died peacefully surrounded by her family." The singer announced in 2022 that she had ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and could no longer sing.

Flack rose to fame when Clint Eastwood used “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” as the soundtrack for the 1971 film "Play Misty for Me."

"Killing Me Softly" was the No. 1 song on the Billboard pop chart for five weeks in 1973 and went on to win Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance. She was also the first person to win back-to-back Record of the Year.

She was a classically trained pianist discovered in the 1960s by jazz musician Les McCann, who later wrote that "her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known."

Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina on Feb. 10, 1937, to musician parents and raised in Arlington, Virginia. A gospel fan as a child, she was so talented a piano player that at age 15 she received a full scholarship to Howard, the historically Black university.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.