Sugar Pie DeSanto7xm, the electrifying R&B singer and songwriter who recorded the hit duet “In the Basement” with Etta James and toured with the Johnny Otis and James Brown revues, died on Friday at the home of her brother, the guitarist Domingo Balinton, in Oakland, Calif. She was 89.

Mr. Balinton said she died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure after two months in hospice care.

Ms. DeSanto’s first record to reach the charts, “I Want to Know,” was a gutbucket blues featuring her raspy vocals recorded on two tracks so she could harmonize with herself. The song was also one of her biggest hits, climbing to No. 4 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1960.

Its follow-up, “Slip-In Mules (No High Heel Sneakers)” — an answer to Tommy Tucker’s “Hi-Heel Sneakers” — was her highest-ranking single on the pop chart. It stalled just outside the Top 40 in 1964 and reached No. 10 on the R&B chart.

“In recent weeks, a conversation around whether to change how we allocate our Electoral College votes has returned to the forefront,” Mr. McDonnell said in a statement on Monday. “I respect the desire of some of my colleagues to have this discussion, and I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue. After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”

Ms. Gray’s 14-year-old son, Colt, is being charged as an adult for murder in the deadliest school shooting in Georgia’s history. He is accused of bringing an AR-15-style rifle to Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., earlier this month, killing four — two students and two math teachers — and injuring at least nine.

Ms. DeSanto never received the widespread acclaim enjoyed by Ms. James, her friend and collaborator, and other female R&B singers of her day. The power and grit of her music and persona nevertheless anticipated, among other things, the sexual braggadocio and swagger of 1970s soul singers like Millie Jackson and Laura Lee and latter-day hip-hop artists like Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown.

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