Natalie Cole

LOS ANGELES — She began as a 1970s soul singer hyped as the next Aretha Franklin and peaked in the 1990s as an old-fashioned stylist and time-defying duet partner to her late father, Nat “King” Cole.

Natalie Cole, who died Thursday in Los Angeles at age 65, was a Grammy winning superstar honored and haunted by comparisons to others.

“Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived ... with dignity, strength and honor. Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain unforgettable in our hearts forever,” read a statement from her son, Robert Yancy, and sisters Timolin and Casey Cole.

According to her family, Cole died of complications from ongoing health issues. She had battled drug problems and hepatitis that forced her to undergo a kidney transplant in May 2009.

“I had to hold back the tears,” Franklin, who had feuded with Cole early in Cole’s career, said in a statement. “She fought for so long. She was one of the greatest singers of our time. She represented the Cole legend of excellence and class quite well.”

A mezzo-soprano with striking range and power, Cole was destined to be a singer, the only question being what kind. She was inspired by her dad at an early age and auditioned to sing with him when she was just 11 years old. She was 15 when he died of lung cancer, in 1965, and would reunite with him decades later in a way only possible through modern technology.

All along, she was moved by and sometimes torn between past and present sounds. As a young woman, she had listened to Franklin and Janis Joplin and for years was reluctant to perform her father’s material. She sang on stage with Frank Sinatra, but also covered Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac.”

“I was determined to create my own identity,” she wrote in her 2010 memoir “Love Brought Me Back.”

The public loved her either way.

She made her recording debut in 1975 with “Inseparable.” The music industry welcomed her with two Grammy Awards, for best new artist and best female R&B vocal performance.