Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay
August 22, 1947
2016 Inductee

A native of Sheffield, Donna Jean Godchaux Mackay began her career as a background vocalist while still a student at Sheffield High School.

She worked recording sessions not only in the Muscle Shoals music industry, but also in Memphis and Nashville, where she recorded with Elvis Presley. Music has always been a passion with Donna. As she points out, “I was singing from pretty much as soon as I could talk.”

 After graduating from high school in 1965, Donna began singing with her best friend Jeanie Greene in a group that they eventually called Southern Comfort. Jeanie’s husband Marlin was a music producer, working with Rick Hall’s FAME Studios. In 1966, Donna and Jeanie sang backup on Percy Sledge’s megahit “When a Man Loves a Woman,” which Marlin produced for FAME. In 1969, she and Jeanie hit solid gold again when they sang back-up on Elvis Presley’s number one hit, “Suspicious Minds.” Other albums on which she sang backing vocals include “3614 Jackson Highway” by Cher (1969), on which she also appeared on the album cover, “Boz Scaggs” (1969) by Boz Scaggs (both albums recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio), and “From Elvis in Memphis” (1969), by Elvis Presley, which featured the top five hit “In The Ghetto,” penned by country artist Mac Davis.

In 1970, Donna decided it was time for a change of scenery and moved to the San Francisco area. She met and married Keith Godchaux, a keyboard player in California. Soon after, the couple joined the Grateful Dead in San Francisco and toured and recorded with that group until 1979. Among the Grateful Dead albums the Godchauxs appear on are, "Europe '72", "Wake of the Flood", "From The Mars Hotel", "Blues for Allah", "Terrapin Station" and "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been".

During their tenure with the group, The Grateful Dead, which got its name from an ancient Egyptian prayer, played three concerts at the foot of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. It was the first time the Department of Antiquities of Egypt had allowed such an event to be staged in that location.

A year after leaving the Grateful Dead, Keith Godchaux was killed in a tragic auto accident.

Donna has returned to live in the Shoals area and is active in the Christian ministry.  In 1997 she released a CD titled “Donna Jean”, a positive rock album utilizing the many talented musicians of Muscle Shoals.