Izora Armstead

Who was Izora Armstead?

Izora Rhodes Armstead was one half of the 1980s pop group Two Tons O' Fun, who would be renamed The Weather Girls.

Born Izora Rhodes in Houston, Texas, she linked up with Sylvester and Patrick Cowley in San Francisco in the late 1970s as a backup singer, along with Martha Wash. At that time they were called Two Tons O' Fun or simply Two Tons.

Later, in 1979, she and Wash formed The Weather Girls. Their hit single "It's Raining Men" was to prove one of the most successful song of the Hi-NRG music genre, hitting number 1 on the club chart.

After she and Wash parted company in the late 1980s, Armstead moved to Germany and formed and managed the German version of the Weather Girls with her daughter, Dynell. In 2002 the group entered the German Final to Eurovision Song Contest 2002 with the song "Get Up", finishing 13th out of 15.

She died of heart failure at the age of 62 in 2004 in San Leandro, California, where she is buried.