Summer (Donna) is born in Dorchester.

The daughter of Andrew and Mary Gaines, Ladonna Gaines grows up at 16 Parker Hill Avenue, attends Grant AME Church and Jeremiah Burke High School, leaving shortly before graduation to perform in the musical Hair in Germany in 1966. She marries Helmuth Sommer in 1973, returns to the U.S. a year later, works initially as a backup singer, and as Donna Summer records her first album in 1974. Summer then moves to Los Angeles, where her career takes off and she comes to be called “The Queen of Disco.” Summer’s last performance in Boston is at the Bank of America Pavilion in August 2010. She dies in Naples, Florida, on May 17, 2012, and is buried in Nashville, Tennessee.