Baltimore-born Cass Elliot: Rock star, devoted mom, independent thinker

On The Record

For many, the memorable element of the singing group The Mamas and the Papas was Cass Elliot’s clear contralto. Cass Elliot was born Ellen Naomi Cohen in Baltimore in 1941, attended Forest Park High School in Northwest Baltimore, and left high school six weeks before graduation to find her show business fortune in New York. She was 32 when she died of a heart attack in London after a brilliant run at the Palladium in late July 1974.

Her daughter, Owen Elliot-Kugell, was 7 years old when her mother died, and has just published a memoir, "My Mama, Cass." We talk with her about it.

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