Roberta Flack supported North Shore Animal League and more Long Island causes

Grammy-winning vocalist Roberta Flack, who died Monday at 88, was not only a frequent performer at music venues in Nassau and Suffolk, but she had many local pet causes, especially those of the four-legged variety.

Flack was a passionate advocate for animal welfare who came to the aid of North Shore Animal League America in Port Washington with a visit to the shelter on March 31, 1988 to kick off Pets Are Wonderful Month in April to encourage people to adopt an animal. In addition to helping North Shore, she was a longtime spokesperson for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Music education was another of her passions. As a frequent visitor to the Hamptons, where she had many friends, she became aware of the Ross School of Music in East Hampton, where Flack did a benefit concert in 2012. It wasn't her only school show: In 2003, she and Ben E. King teamed up for "A Night of Music and Memories" at Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills to benefit that venue's Hills Foundation for Enhancement and Enrichment of Children.

Beyond her benefit concerts, Flack performed at most of the major entertainment venues on Long Island including Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center in 2004 and 2014. She also played Westbury Music Fair on numerous occasions, including shows with Ray Charles in 1999, Al Jarreau and Teddy Pendergrass in 2000, and Teddy Pendergrass in 2002. One of Flack's more unusual local shows took place in 2001 at the Tilles Center in Greenvale when she was backed in concert by the Long Island Philharmonic.

In 1991, she performed several of her hits, including "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in a free concert at the town park on Lido Boulevard in Point Lookout to close out the summer. In 2005, she was one of the headliners at the North Fork Bank Jazz Festival at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay for a night of music under the stars.