Gospel Singer, Actor, Entrepreneur and 3 Time Breast Cancer Survivor, Delores Burgess Turns Trials into Triumph

Delores Burgess may be short in stature, but she’s a powerhouse in will, determination, vision and faith. The multi-talented and multi-skilled gospel singer, actor, playwright and entrepreneur has successfully fought her way back from three different breast cancer diagnoses over a 23-year period, even while she was turning her pain into purpose for others.

Burgess, whose determination, independence, strength and creative vision for just making things work despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, was modeled from what she saw from both her mother and grandmother, who were both single mothers whose faith and will helped them get through challenging times.

“I grew up watching them handle their lives in what I interpreted as signs of independence, strength, creativity and overwhelming love and protection of their children, doing all within their power to make their homes happy, safe and stable and those qualities were instilled in me to always find a way, make a way, and that has formed how I went about living life and facing challenges,” said Burgess.

Coming from a musical family, where her father’s side were gospel singers and musicians, Burgess knew she had an innate gift for singing and performing since about five years old and throughout elementary and high school, was always involved in artsy and performance type of activities, including cheerleading, performing in or creating talent shows, and even working on set designs for school productions. 

However, not really having successful role model in the arts that looked like her, who weren’t in Hollywood, Burgess’ acumen for numbers, led to civil engineering and statistics studies in college, believing that path would lead to more financially stable, upwardly mobile careers for her, which it did.  For many years, Burgess served as a statistician for the department of agriculture and as a statistical analyst and IT consultant for organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the creative, performing arts side of her personality never left her.  As a result, she decided to change course and pursue her love of singing as an R&B, then gospel singer and independent recording artist. She also married her husband and current business partner Gary Burgess, to whom she’s been married nearly 40 years, and had two daughters. It was when her two daughters were still very young, when the breast cancer journey began and Burgess had to find new levels of strength and determination to manage the life-threatening crisis each of the three times it occurred.

But successfully manage it she did, including raising her two daughters to become successful entrepreneurs themselves; becoming a sought-after speaker about her successful breast cancer journey; starting a ministry; building a IT business in healthcare integrations with her husband, authoring her book “Suspicion of Malignancy” and writing, directing and performing in Fighting for the Title, a widely-lauded one-woman musical, Broadway-quality stage play, which chronicles her deeply personal journey through her battle with breast cancer, capturing the fear, uncertainty, faith, humor and determination that defined her fight to survive.

“Sharing the story of my breast cancer journey as a speaker, singer, actor and playwright has opened a whole new world of awareness, personal triumph and education, impacting hundreds of women with whom I’ve come in contact around the world over the years,” says Burgess, also owner of The Brio Theatre, a creative community hub and black box theater in Metro-Atlanta, which opened December 2025. “Today, I am not only excited about making the production of Fighting for the Title available for tour bookings and strategic investment partnerships, but we are also loving connecting with the community through our businesses and ministry. The Brio Theater is a place where people don’t have to wait for someone else to give them permission to pursue their creative vision, but can build their skills, creative ideas, and artistic projects within an encouraging and professional environment,” she said.