Ruth Brown, shown in an undated file photo, died Friday at a Henderson hospital. Photo by The Associated Press. Ruth Brown looks over her picture wall at her home in Henderson on Nov. 23, 2004. Photo by the Review-Journal.

Singer Ruth Brown, known as "Miss Rhythm" during her 1950s heyday as a pioneer rhythm and blues star, died Friday at a Henderson hospital. She was 78.

Brown, who lived in Henderson, had been in intensive care for more than a week.

She died of complications from a stroke and heart attack, said Lindajo Loftus, a publicist for the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, which Brown helped found.

Brown's soulful voice produced dozens of hits for Atlantic Records, which became known as "The House That Ruth Built" for such successes as "Teardrops in My Eyes,'' "5-10-15 Hours'' and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean.''

But Brown "was not just a blues shouter, she could be very tender," said Las Vegas-based singer Marlena Shaw, a longtime friend. "She was just so special. That woman had so many different talents."

A Tony winner for the Broadway musical "Black and Blue" and a Grammy winner for the album "Blues on Broadway," Brown also created the character of Motormouth Maybelle in the 1988 movie "Hairspray," which inspired the Tony-winning Broadway musical, and appeared in the television sitcoms "Hello, Larry" and "Checking In."

Other accolades included the Ralph Gleason Award for Music Journalism for her 1996 autobiography, "Miss Rhythm," and a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.

Brown also appeared in the 2004 documentary "Lightning in a Bottle," which chronicled a concert at New York City's Radio City Music Hall that featured a host of blues legends, including fellow Southern Nevadan B.B. King.

Brown's Las Vegas appearances ranged from the late 1950s to an early '70s gig at Circus Circus and a "Guys and Dolls" performance at the Aladdin that caught the eye of "All in the Family" producer Norman Lear, who saw her and asked her to audition for "Hello, Larry."

"We walked and stood on her shoulders," singer Gladys Knight, also a Southern Nevada resident, said in a statement while on tour. "I'm so grateful for her having been here, because I was able to watch and learn."

For the past several years, Brown was a Thursday night fixture at the Bootlegger Bistro, but the club dropped her show in September.

During her Bootlegger run, Brown needed a cane to take the stage and performed sitting down. But that didn't interfere with her gritty, bittersweet voice.

Her repertoire included the raucous "Black and Blue" showstopper "If I Can't Sell It, I'll Keep Sittin' on It" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean," the 1952 hit that cemented her status as a rock 'n' roll pioneer.

Introducing Charlie Chaplin's wistful "Smile," Brown told her audience: "Sometimes you look around and think all hope is gone, and the next day something wonderful happens. If you know someone like that, tell 'em about me -- and that I send love."

"The talent she had," marveled Las Vegan Sonny Turner of the Platters, who first worked with Brown during his days as a young doo-wop singer. "She still had her chops and her good looks."

Another Las Vegas-based singer, Anthony Gourdine of Little Anthony and the Imperials, remembers Brown's advice to a "little hoodlum kid from Brooklyn" about being a showbiz pro when he was first starting out.

"I was one of a bazillion that she probably told (how) to do it right," Gourdine said.

But that was typical of Brown, who "opened a lot of doors for a lot of singers," noted drummer Calvin "Eagle Eye" Shields, who first met Brown in the 1940s -- when she was performing in a show called "Charles Taylor's Brown-Skinned Mannequins" -- and later worked for her during her years as an R & B star.

"She was a very beautiful young lady," Shields recalled. "She had stamina. And they called her 'Miss Rhythm' because she could swing."

Like other R & B and rock 'n' roll pioneers, however, Brown struggled to make a living after her brand of music lost favor in the late 1950s. She spent most of the 1960s raising two sons and working as a maid, a school bus driver and a teacher.

But Brown enjoyed a career renaissance in the mid-1970s when she began recording blues and jazz. She continued to record -- and perform -- in her later years, becoming a popular host of "Harlem Hit Parade'' on National Public Radio.

"At this time in my life, I'm singing better," she said in a 2004 Review-Journal interview. "My younger things were good, but in my head, I'm better now. I've lived it."

Brown survived the 1994 Southern California earthquake that prompted her move to Southern Nevada. (Her son and manager, Earl Swanson, pulled her from the rubble of her home.)

She also survived colon cancer, walking pneumonia, an automobile accident that crushed both her legs -- and a stroke that prompted doctors to tell her "they doubted I would ever sing again," she recalled in 2004.

"With all she went through in her life, she made sure we in the audience could feel it," Shaw said.

And because she had survived so many previous medical problems, "we always thought Ruth would come back from whatever it was," Shaw added. "Her spirit was strong."

Born Jan. 30, 1928, in Portsmouth, Va., Brown began singing as a girl, performing in church and at weddings. In her first flush of success, she toured with the likes of George Shearing, Billy Eckstine and Count Basie, where she shared the bandstand with another future jazz and blues legend (and fellow Las Vegan), Joe Williams.

"Ruth was one of the most important and beloved figures in modern music,'' singer Bonnie Raitt said in a statement. "You can hear her influence in everyone from Little Richard to Etta (James), Aretha (Franklin), Janis (Joplin) and divas like Christina Aguilera today.''

Brown also became a prominent advocate for the rights of aging R & B musicians during a long struggle to recoup her share of royalties from Atlantic. Her effort led to the formation of the Philadelphia-based Rhythm & Blues Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides financial and medical assistance to performers and preserves R & B's legacy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.