'I Am Woman' singer Helen Reddy dies at 78

Helen Reddy, the Grammy Award-winning singer whose hit "I Am Woman" became a feminist anthem, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. She was 78.

Reddy's death was announced by her children Traci and Jordan, who said in a statement she was a "truly formidable woman," and while their "hearts are broken" they "take comfort in the knowledge that her voice will live on forever."

Born in Australia, Reddy began singing as a child, and rose to stardom in the United States in the early 1970s after winning a contest that let her launch her recording career. She had three No. 1 hits, but the biggest one by far was "I Am Woman," which earned Reddy the 1973 best female vocal pop performance Grammy.

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The song has been used in countless movies and television shows, and Reddy told The Associated Press in 2012 that she decided to stop performing in the 1990s after seeing her name and the lyrics to "I Am Woman" in a high school textbook's chapter on feminism. "I thought, 'Well, I'm part of history now. And how do I top that? I can't top that.' So, it was an easy withdrawal," she said. After her retirement, Reddy earned a degree in clinical hypnotherapy.