Her manager Devra Hall Levy tells The Associated Press late Thursday night that

Wilson died peacefully after a long illness at her home in Pioneertown, a California desert community near Joshua Tree National Park, on Thursday night, her manager Devra Hall said. She was 81.

Influenced by Dinah Washington, Nat "King" Cole and other stars, Wilson covered everything from jazz standards to Little Green Apples.

In the 1960s alone she released eight albums that reached the top 20 on Billboard's pop charts.

Sometimes elegant and understated, or quick and conversational, Wilson was best known for songs such as her breakthrough Guess Who I Saw Today and the 1964 hit (You Don't Know) How Glad I Am, which drew upon Broadway, pop and jazz.

Wilson retired from touring in 2011.

She resisted being identified with a single category, especially jazz, and referred to herself as a "song stylist".

"The music that I sing today was the pop music of the 1960s," she told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2010.

"I just never considered myself a jazz singer. I do not do runs and, you know, I take a lyric and make it mine. I consider myself an interpreter of the lyric."

Australian Associated Press