Karen Carpenter

Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and drummer of the musical duo the Carpenters, formed with her older brother Richard. With a distinctive three-octave contralto range, she was praised by her peers for her vocal skills. Carpenter appeared on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.

Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to Downey, California, in 1963 with her family. She began to study the drums in high school and joined the Long Beach State choir in college. After several years touring and recording, the Carpenters were signed to A&M Records in 1969, when Karen was 19 years old. They achieved enormous commercial and critical success throughout the 1970s. Initially, Carpenter was the band's full-time drummer, but she gradually took the role of frontwoman as her drumming was reduced to a handful of live showcases or tracks on albums.

In 1975, Carpenter started exhibiting symptoms of anorexia nervosa due to the severe pressures of fame and her complicated family dynamics. She never recovered and died at the age of 32 in 1983 from complications related to her disorder, which was little known outside celebrity circles at the time. Carpenter's death sparked worldwide attention and research into eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Interest in her life and death has produced numerous documentaries and films.

Karen Anne Carpenter was born on March 2, 1950, at Grace New Haven Hospital (now called Yale New Haven Hospital) in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Agnes Reuwer (March 5, 1915 – November 10, 1996) and Harold Bertram Carpenter (November 8, 1908 – October 15, 1988). Harold was born in Wuzhou, China, where his parents were missionaries. Before finding work in the printing business, he was educated at boarding schools in the United Kingdom.

Carpenter's elder brother, Richard, developed an interest in music at an early age, becoming a piano prodigy. Karen's first words were "bye-bye" and "stop it", the latter spoken in response to Richard. She enjoyed dancing and by age four was enrolled in tap dancing and ballet classes. Later, she liked to play softball in the street.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.