NEW YORK (AP) — Some people called her Bubbles. Others knew her as “the diva next door”. But to most of the world, Brooklyn-born soprano Beverly Sills was America’s first prima donna — a child star who sang commercials for laundry soap and grew up to play queens.Sills died on Monday night at her Manhattan home, surrounded by her family and doctor, said her manager, Edgar Vincent. She was 78. Sills was diagnosed with lung cancer weeks ago, but was never a smoker, Vincent said.

Sills started performing in the days of radio and appeared recently in high-definition movie theatre broadcasts live from the Metropolitan Opera, where she performed as a singer, then became chairwoman of the board.

The Met had denied her the chance to sing on its stage until 1975, when she made her debut in Rossini’s “The Siege of Corinth”.

In her memoir, Sills said long-time Met general manager Rudolf Bing “had a thing about American singers, especially those who had not been trained abroad: He did not think very much of them.”

She helped put Americans on the international map of opera stars, singing at such famed opera houses as Milan’s La Scala, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, The Royal Opera in London and the Deutsche Opera in Berlin.

The red-haired diva also appeared frequently on “The Tonight Show”, “The Muppet Show” and in televised performances with her friend Carol Burnett. Born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn, she was called Bubbles, an endearment coined by the doctor who delivered her. He noted that she was born blowing a spit bubble from her mouth.

In 1947, that mouth produced vocal glory for her operatic stage debut in Philadelphia in a bit role in Bizet’s “Carmen”. Sills became a star with the New York City Opera, where she first performed in 1955 in Johann Strauss, Jr.’s “Die Fledermaus”.

“She was just a life force — brilliant, witty and warm, funny, exquisitely talented,” New York City Opera chairwoman Susan Baker said. “In addition to being an icon of the American opera world, she went on to become a great leader in the world of the arts.”

Sills retired from the stage in 1980 at age 51 and began a new life as an executive and leader of New York’s performing arts community. First, she became general director of the New York City Opera. Under her stewardship, the City Opera was the first in the nation to use English supertitles, translating for the audience by projecting lyrics onto a screen above the stage.

In 1994, Sills became chairwoman of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She was the first woman and first former artist in that position.

After leading Lincoln Center through eight boom years and launching a redevelopment project, she retired in 2002, saying she wanted “to smell the flowers a little bit”.

Six months later, she was back as chairwoman of the Met.

“So I smelled the roses and developed an allergy,” she joked.

As Met chairwoman, Sills was instrumental in proposing Peter Gelb, now general manager, for the position. He helped increase ticket sales and increase the Met’s popularity.

Sills bowed out as chairwoman in January 2005, saying, “I know that I have achieved what I set out to do.”

Described by former Mayor Ed Koch as “an empire unto herself”, Sills sat on several corporate boards, including those of Macy’s and American Express.

She raised money not only for Lincoln Center but also non-artistic causes such as the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the March of Dimes.

She also lent her name and voice to the Multiple Sclerosis Society; her daughter, Meredith, has MS and was born deaf. Sills also nurtured her autistic son and her husband, Peter Greenough, a former journalist who lived with her at their home as his Alzheimer’s disease progressed. He died last year.

Besides Greenough’s three children from a previous marriage, the couple had two children of their own, Peter, Jr., known as “Bucky”, and Meredith, known as “Muffy”.