Her outlandish behavior and appearance made her a controversial figure in the music world for most of her life.
His father was Philip Berlinsky, an immigrant from Poland that started the Berle Apparel Group, which still operates today.
She attended Dolan Middle School in Stamford, and ran away from home to New York City, and became addicted to drugs.
Toots posed for Mink Deville's Le Chat Bleu album cover in 1980.
Some of the band's early songs mention a woman named "Sue" that was inspired by Toots.
Toots had jet black hair she would keep often in a beehive hairstyle, and had a nose ring and tattoos, which was still uncommon in the early 1970s.
[4][5] She left the rock music scene behind her, divorced from Deville in 1984, and moved to upstate New York, where she stopped using drugs and became a health-care worker until she was diagnosed with cancer.