Her death at 44 came as a shock, and now the cause has been revealed.
According to the Tennessee’s Davidson County Medical Examiner’s office, Dukureh died of natural causes.
The official cause was “hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” according to a report obtained byEntertainment Weekly.
Shonka Dukureh as Big Mama Thornton in ‘Elvis’.Kane Skennar/Warner Bros.
One of her children found her unresponsive and ran to a neighbor’s apartment to call 911.
Prior to her death, she also had plans to release her first full-length album.
