The Tragic Death Of The Mamas And The Papas Cass Elliot

The Tragic Death Of The Mamas And The Papas Cass Elliot

The Mamas and the Papas were icons of the ’60s music scene. They were four young people who rose out of the folk era to create songs that captured the public’s ear and held tight. John Phillips, his then-wife Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Cass Elliot found their way into each other’s artistic circle and soared.

Though each of the four members would go on to create art in one fashion or another John Phillips and Doherty in music, Michelle more focused on acting arguably, it was Elliot who has had the longest impact on popular culture, even today.

And that made her sudden loss at such a young age an even bigger tragedy.

Somehow the press latched onto the completely untrue rumor that she’d choked to death on a ham sandwich continuing to mock her appearance even in death. In reality, “Mama” Cass Elliot actually died of a massive heart attack in her sleep. The Guardian quoted pathologist Keith Simpson, who said,

“There was left-sided heart failure […] She had a heart attack which developed rapidly.”

Tragically, it’s highly probable that the fatal weakness of her heart was a direct result of her severe dieting practices over the years weight loss also meant loss of muscle, including heart muscle, meaning her death was in many ways a result of the lifetime of fat shaming she had been subjected to. Cass Elliot was just 32 years old.