'Diva' film soprano Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez Smith has died at 75

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez Smith, a renowned soprano known for her performance in the 1981 French cult-classic film “Diva” and who sang through the U.S. and Europe during her operatic career, has died at age 75.

Funeral services were held Friday for Fernandez Smith at a church in Lexington, Kentucky, where she had moved after residing for years in her native Philadelphia. She died of cancer Feb. 2 at her home in Lexington, daughter Sheena Maria Fernandez told The Philadelphia Inquirer.