Guwahati: Singer Dipali Barthakur breathed her last after a prolonged illness on Friday, 21 December, at the age of 77 in her hometown, Guwahati. 

Barthakur received the fourth-highest civilian award of India, the Padma Shri, in the year 1998. Though she sang mainly in Assamese, she is fondly remembered as Nightingale of Assam. She is survived by her husband eminent painter Neel Pawan Baruah.

The couple inspired many with their love story when Baruah took care of the singer who had been confined to a wheelchair after being diagnosed with a rare motor neuron disease in the early 1970s. 

Earlier this year, the Assam government had provided financial aid worth Rs 1 lakh for her treatment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to social media to express their condolences.