Singer Little Eva, who as a teen-ager recorded the hit 1960s dance song "The Loco-Motion," has died after a long battle with cervical cancer, her manager said Friday. She was 59.

Eva Narcissus Boyd died Thursday, April 10, 2003, at Lenoir Memorial Hospital in Kinston, North Carolina, manager Brenda Cape said. "She had cancer. She fought it for a long time," Cape said.

Boyd was working as a baby sitter for songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin when they asked her to record a song they had written called "The Loco-Motion" in 1962. The song was a hit for Little Eva that year and again for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974.

Boyd had other minor hits including "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" in 1962 and "Old Smokey Loco-Motion" in 1963. She sang background for The Drifters, Ben E. King and others.

Cape said Boyd continued to work until October 2001 when she became too weak from her illness to perform.

Boyd is survived by two daughters, a son, 15 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.