Spanish singer Rocio Jurado dies, age 61

MADRID, June 1 (Reuters) Spanish singer and actress Rocio Jurado, known as La Mas Grande or ''The Greatest'' for her songs and films, died in the early hours of today after suffering from pancreatic cancer, her brother Amador Mohedano said.

Jurado, 61, had been treated for cancer in the United States but suffered liver failure in April this year after she returned to Madrid.

''At 5.15 am (0845 hrs IST) she stopped breathing,'' Mohedano told reporters gathered outside his sister's home in Madrid.

He said his sister died ''surrounded by her own, calm and without worries.'' Jurado started her career singing flamenco and moved into film in the 1960s, gradually acquiring a huge following in Spain and Latin America.

She made more than 30 albums between 1969 and 2006, starred in nine films and filled hundreds of pages of gossip magazines.

Fans had formed a vigil outside her Madrid home following news her health had deteriorated.

Jurado divorced her first husband, boxer Pedro Carrasco, and then married bullfighter Jose Ortega Cano.

Her body will be taken to a wake at the city's Villa de Madrid cultural centre where admirers will have a chance to say farewell after 11.30 am (1500 hrs), local media reported.

She will be buried in her home town of Chipiona, in the province of Cadiz, southern Spain, local media reported.

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