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• Niagara pop star Vanity dies at 57

 

I almost froze when I finally got Denise Matthews on the phone. It had taken so long to talk to her, I didn't know where to start. Which life to discuss first.

Her beauty queen years in Niagara Falls? The Prince era? Her lost decade addicted to crack? Her rebirth as an evangelist, forming her own ministry?

It was a fascinating life, but Matthews – who died Monday – wasn't eager to talk about all of it. In fact, she hadn't spoken to her hometown paper in more than 30 years before I reached out to her by e-mail. There were unsuccessful attempts to talk over the years, but this time she agreed. It was December, 2007, and she was about to release her autobiography Blame It On Vanity. It was to be her last word on the alter-ego that made her a star. And nearly killed her.

I had an old 1977 clipping from The Review in my hand as she picked up the phone. I read the headline to her - '18-year-old Westlane beauty is Miss Niagara Hospitality' – and she chuckled at this reminder of her youth. Before the drugs, before the pain. What would you say to your 18-year-old self, I asked her.

"Make sure you don't do what you think you're going to do," she said with a laugh.

There were more laughs over the next 45 minutes or so, but also some anger. Some awkward moments. She didn't like some questions, didn't want to revisit the woman she once was. The sultry pop star. Prince's one-time protege. The girl who once sang "I'm looking' for a man that'll do it anywhere / Even on a limousine floor."

Matthews was born to German-born mom Helga Senyk and African-American dad James Levia Matthews. Friends recall her as stunningly beautiful early on, but shy and bullied at school. She frequently had to hide bruises from her abusive father.

"She was very talented and beautiful," recalls Niagara Falls city councillor Joyce Morocco, who knew Matthews in high school. "When she started doing the modeling you just knew she was going to go places."

Shortly after leaving Niagara Falls, Matthews put her movie star looks to work in less-than-stellar flicks like Terror Train and Tanya's Island. In the early '80s she attended a Prince concert, and later met the singer – not quite a superstar yet – back stage at the American Music Awards. He was smitten, and created the all-girl trio Vanity 6 just for her. He then produced their debut album, which included the crude dance floor classic Nasty Girl. Shortly after, she appeared with Prince on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Then came the turning point. At 24, Prince offered her the female lead in his autobiographical movie Purple Rain. She agreed, then abruptly left the production – and Prince's life – for a solo career with Motown Records.

Purple Rain went on to become a global smash in the summer of '84. Vanity 6 became Apollonia 6. Matthews, meanwhile, struggled to find solo success with her albums (Wild Animal, Skin on Skin) or movies (The Last Dragon, Action Jackson). All of it took a back seat to the drugs, as her addiction to crack cocaine took over. She hooked up with Motley Crue guitarist Nikki Sixx, whom she was briefly engaged to. Their mutual drug abuse is detailed in Sixx's book The Heroin Diaries. It isn't pretty.

To outsiders, Vanity was fascinating. A beautiful girl from Niagara Falls personally groomed by Prince to be a star before she succumbed to drugs and decadence. But to Matthews, that story didn't matter any more. Vanity was dead. She was gone when she woke from a three-day coma in 1994 after her kidneys shut down from drug abuse.

"I haven't seen a tape of mine in 15 years," she said. "I get calls from people saying 'Your movie's on!' That's nice, but I don't have a television. My tapes as Vanity…I destroyed those years ago."

She only referred to Vanity as a cautionary tale. An evil figure from a past life. Her patience wore thin with every mention of her name, but she struggled for another reason – simply holding the telephone was causing her discomfort. Pretty much everything did. Every day she had to do five sessions of peritoneal dialysis, each one lasting half an hour. It left her drained, sore. But still alive.

Then she dropped a bomb on me: She refused to go on a waiting list for a new kidney because she was convinced God would give her one.

"I don't have to believe I'll do (dialysis) for the rest of my life," she said. "The doctors would like you to believe that. You can either believe that and receive that, or you can believe God.

"You have to understand…I live by faith."

That was alarming. I e-mailed her some treatment options after our talk, but never heard back. Some fans were concerned after the story, worried her faith was trumping common sense.

In recent months, Matthews started selling many of her personal belongings and started a GoFundMe page to help pay for treatments for her final, fatal ailment: An inflammation of the intestines called Sclerosing Encapsulating Peritonitis.

The goal was $50,000. She raised $6,659. Monday night, she passed away at a hospital in Fremont, Calif., where she lived. She was 57. At her final sermon Saturday, she said she was "ready to go home."

On Tuesday, I reached out to Matthews' younger sister Ren in Los Angeles, who says Denise had found peace despite her physical ordeal these past 22 years.

"She has been praising Jesus and in and out of the hospital, that's the best way to put it," she said. "She had a lot of side effects from issues with surgery. Infections and such. There's been a lot going on with her physically."

Along with sisters Deborah and Patricia, the four Matthews girls grew up in Niagara Falls. Ten years younger than Denise, Ren watched her blossom as a model, then leave to seek stardom.

"Denise was always an entertainer. Even as a little girl she would dress up and put on shows. It was inevitable."

But so was her passing. During their last talk over the summer, Matthews told her sister she was ready for the pain to end.

"It's just, she's had so many heart attacks and she's always come through. It was just a shock that she actually did not come through this time."

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