Singer, mother of pitcher for Giants

Roberta Zito, 65, a former backup singer with Nat King Cole’s Merry Young Souls and the wife of Cole’s orchestra conductor and arranger Joe Zito, died Nov. 13 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The cause of death was pneumonia and cardiopulmonary arrest. She had received a liver transplant nine years ago.

Zito was an ordained minister who led the Teaching of the Inner Christ, a metaphysical faith organization founded by her mother, Anne Makeever, and based in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon.

Born Roberta Rosser in Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 8, 1943, she was a freshman at UCLA when she landed a spot in Cole’s troupe in the 1960s.

She and Joe Zito had two daughters, Bonnie and Sally; and a son, Barry, who became a major league baseball pitcher, now playing for the San Francisco Giants. The couple lived in New York and Las Vegas before settling in San Diego.