As a child, M.L. Vasanthakumari had wanted to become a doctor. Even later in life, she missed being one. "Doctors save lives," she remarked to a reporter, voicing her admiration for the medical profession. She had in fact acquired a doctoral degree. It had been conferred on her, honoris causa, by the Mysore University in 1976. But it was a degree to honour her for her achievements in music. She could not save anyone's life, not even her own. She died at 1320 hours on Wednesday 31 October 1990 at St. Isabel's Hospital in Madras. The proximate cause of her death was hepatitis, commonly known as jaundice. But she had been ill for a year or more, and treated for the fever to which she was subject periodically. Only months before her passing it was discovered that she had a malignant tumour in the ileo-caecal junction, the segment connecting her large and small intestines. Diagnosis: intestinal cancer in layman's language.