November is here so it's time for my penultimate legend.

Next week will bring the long-hoped-for opportunity to see three Motown Divas: Mable John (the first woman ever signed to the label), Chris Clark and Brenda Holloway. This month I am celebrating a Diva who sadly died nearly 40 years ago.

Tammi Terrell lived a life that sounds like the sort of plotline Halle Berry would give her eyeliner to play... sadly Tammi had to live it.

The daughter of a politician and actress, Thomasina Montgomery first came to notice singing in her church choir which led to her singing on stage and a record contract with Florence Greenberg's Sceptre Records in 1961 aged just 16. She was loaned out to James Brown's record label but found no success with either label.

In 1965 while singing at the 20 Grand Club in Detroit she was approached by Motown boss Berry Gordy who was thrilled with what he saw. In the same year she met and - allegedly - married boxer Ernie Terrell whose sister Jean would also become a Motown star when she took over from Diana Ross in The Supremes.

Frustratingly this wonderful singer found minor success as a solo performer but two years into her contract, fate intervened. Kim Weston left Motown in 1967 and Gordy picked Tammi to be Marvin Gaye's new duets partner. Instant chemistry. Tammi's infectious personality and sensuous vocals seemed to release Marvin from his rather guarded and stiff personality and their duets still crackle with a sense of fun and delicious teasing sexuality - just listen to AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH, YOUR PRECIOUS LOVE, IF I COULD BUILD MY WHOLE WORLD AROUND YOU, AIN'T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING and YOU'RE ALL I NEED TO GET BY.

But fate again intervened. After having suffered headaches, Tammi collapsed on stage into Marvin's arms. Rushed to hospital, Tammi was eventually diagnosed with a tumour on the brain. She endured eight operations but her condition never improved.

So many rumours swirl around Tammi's life. Did she and James Brown have a relationship during her time at his label leading to her parents insisting they sever their professional partnership? Was her illness caused by the beatings she endured at the hands of "a Motown executive" and her on-off lover David Ruffin of The Temptations? And the ultimate mystery: how much of her final album with Marvin actually features Tammi's vocals?

Tammi was certainly in no condition to perform live but it was reported she could still record. Two of the twelve tracks featured Tammi's original solo recordings with Marvin's voice added after. Years after the event Marvin Gaye told his biographer that Valerie Simpson, co-writer and co-producer of the album, substituted for Tammi. To this day, Simpson says that she might have filled-in the occasional phrase but that was all. One can understand her wanting to protect Tammi's reputation. Her failing health had a profound effect on Marvin Gaye who withdrew from live performances for two years.

Tammi died in March 1970, aged 24.

Remember her this way... singing with Marvin in a rainy Expo 67 in Montreal.