In the last two years of her life, Phyllis Dillon, the songbird whom they dubbed the queen of rocksteady, endured not just the pain of debilitating cancer, but emotional trauma over a string of incidents which forced her to abandon plans to resettle in her homeland, Jamaica, friends and relatives said.

Dillon, after being wooed back to the music industry by promoters, built a five-bedroom house in Linstead, St Catherine, the town of her birth. Her plan was to spend her final days there. But this was not to be.

Unscrupulous persons, thinking that a wealthy superstar was among them, preyed upon her constantly, demanding money and threatening her with harm if she did not fork over.

“She said she got a raw deal and so she was leaving Jamaica,” said her cousin, Everton Dillon, with whom she grew up.

“They threatened her to the point where she became very bitter, that even before she took ill in February of this year, she became so broken in spirit, she decided that she would sell the house and return to live aboard once more,” a friend who requested anonymity said.

Everton Dillion confirmed that the ill-fated house was being sold.

The Phyllis Dillon story is one of hard knocks. She first left Jamaica in 1974 when she became fed-up with what she saw as the stagnation of her career and the way in which female artistes on a whole were being treated by the local music industry.

“Out of the frustration of being ripped off, despite having an impressive catalogue of hits, she left Jamaica in the ’70s and vowed that she would never again become involved with music,” a friend said.

Recording only for the late Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label, Phyllis Dillon has to her credit such hits as Don’t Stay Away (her signature tune), Don’t Touch Mi Tomato, Perfidia, Love That A Woman Should Give to A Man, Remember That Sunday (in duet with Alton Ellis), Get On The Right Track (with Hopeton Lewis) and One Life To Live.

“It took me five years to get her to perform here in Jamaica,” said Michael Barnett, who, along with Keith Brown, is responsible for the staging of the popular vintage showcase, Heineken Startime, which gave Dillon a second lease on her musical life.

“We were the ones,” Barnett pointed out, “who brought her back into the business. It took me five years (from 1986) of calling and trying to convince her to perform in Jamaica. It was not until 1991 that I finally convinced her to do the show, ‘Get Ready Rocksteady’ at the National Arena.”

That event was the first time in 17 years that Phyllis Dillon, who this December would have celebrated her 60th birthday, was performing in Jamaica. It was the money she earned from such gigs, touring and performing over the 10 years between 1991 and 2001, which she invested in a home for resettlement in her homeland.

Phyllis Dillon lost her battle with cancer last Thursday at home in Long Island, New York where she had sought refuge. Relatives vowed she would be buried there.