Jazz-pop singer and keyboardist Nina Simone, who carried herself with the bearing of an African queen, died Monday at her home in France. She had spent the past few years struggling with illness and infirmity that forced her occasionally to cancel concert dates and to ask for assistance making her way to the stage. Simone, who was born Eunice Waymon in tiny Tryon, North Carolina, was a keyboard prodigy who, even as a youngster in her minister mother’s church, could play by ear. This won her the attention of a local music teacher, who gave her formal keyboard lessons and prepared Simone for her admission to New York City’s Juilliard School of Music.

Simone’s career had a difficult start. In the 1950s, she taught piano privately and played instrumentals at small venues in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As legend has it, a pushy club owner bullied her into singing along with her piano playing one night, and a star was born. Simone quickly learned to love the sound of her deep contralto voice, and audiences from Philadelphia and New York did, too. By 1957, she’d signed her first recording contract. Simone had just one major hit, a 1959 version of " I Loves You, Porgy, " from George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, but her fans treasured her interpretations of the blues and R&B classics " Don’t Smoke in Bed, " " Put a Little Sugar in My Bowl, " and " I Put Spell on You. "

Simone became an important voice in the struggle for African-American civil rights, recording such calls of triumph and protest as " To Be Young, Gifted, and Black " and " Mississippi Goddamn. " Even in recent years, these songs worked a dark, moody magic on audiences, thanks to her impulsive, idiosyncratic piano style and singing. But she could be a harsh mistress. During her final Boston performance, at the FleetBoston Pavilion in June 2000, she repeatedly unleashed her infamous temper on her band. Nonetheless, her flare-ups were tempered by generosity and brilliance, especially when she reached deeply into her heart for the slow, bittersweet love song " Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It), " causing an absolute hush to fall over the large theater. Now Simone herself — a true American original — has been silenced.

Her music, however, will endure. And this Thursday, April 24, at 7 p.m. on WGBH 89.7 FM, disc jockey Eric Jackson will memorialize Simone with four hours of her recordings, spanning her entire career.