Karen Anne Carpenter (1950 - 1983)

Born 2 Mar 1950 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Ancestors

Died 4 Feb 1983 at age 32 in Downey, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

Karen Carpenter is Notable.

Karen Carpenter was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard Carpenter, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters. Although her skills as a drummer earned admiration from drumming luminaries and peers, she is best known for her vocal performances. She had a contralto vocal range.^[1]

Karen Anne Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Agnes Reuwer (née Tatum) and Harold Bertram Carpenter.^[1]

When she was young, Karen enjoyed playing baseball with other children on the street. Karen enjoyed dancing and by age 4 was enrolled in tap dancing and ballet classes. The family moved in June 1963 to the Los Angeles suburb of Downey.^[1]

When Karen entered Downey High School, she joined the school band. She started on the glockenspiel, an instrument she disliked, but later she asked if she could play the drums instead. She graduated from Downey High School in the spring of 1967, receiving the "John Philip Sousa Band Award", and enrolled as a music major at Long Beach State where she performed in the college choir. ^[1]

Karen's first band was Two Plus Two, an all-girl trio formed with friends from Downey High. They split up after she suggested her brother Richard join the group. In 1965, Karen, Richard, and his college friend Wes Jacobs, formed the Dick Carpenter Trio. Karen and her brother made their first recordings in 1965 and 1966. A&M Records signed the Carpenters to a recording contract in 1969.^[1]

Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that was little known at the time. Under a doctor's guidance, she started on the Stillman Diet circa 1970. She rigorously ate lean foods, drank eight glasses of water a day, and avoided fatty foods. She was 5' 4" (163 cm) in height and before dieting weighed 145 pounds (66 kg; 10 st 5 lb). Afterward, she weighed 120 pounds (54 kg; 8 st 8 lb) until 1973, when the Carpenters' career reached its peak. By September 1975, her weight was 91 pounds (41 kg; 6 st 7 lb). In September 1982, she was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, where she was placed on intravenous parenteral nutrition. The procedure was successful and she gained some weight in a relatively short time, but this put a strain on her heart, which was already weak from years of improper diet. She maintained a relatively stable weight for the rest of her life. She died at age 32 from heart failure caused by complications related to her illness. Her death led to increased visibility and awareness of eating disorders.^[1]

On February 4, Karen was scheduled to sign final papers making her divorce from Thomas James Burris official. Shortly after waking up on that day, she collapsed in her bedroom at her parents' home in Downey. Paramedics found her heart beating once every 10 seconds. She was pronounced dead at Downey Community Hospital at 9:51 am.^[1]

Her funeral was held February 8, 1983, at Downey United Methodist Church. Approximately one thousand mourners attended, including her friends Dorothy Hamill, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark and Dionne Warwick. She was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California. In 2003 her body was moved, to be placed with her parents in a mausoleum at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} Wikipedia contributors, "Karen Carpenter," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karen_Carpenter&oldid=1129017784 (accessed December 26, 2022).

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 13 May 2018, 23:44), entry for Karen Anne Carpenter(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:L6W5-CSD); contributed by various users.

• Randy Schmidt (October 24, 2010). "Karen Carpenter's tragic story". The Guardian.

• Kornblum. "Karen Carpenter Autopsy Report" (PDF). "A well-developed, thin 32-year-old white female which measures 64 inches in length and weighs 108 pounds."

• "Little Girl Blue Quotes by Randy L. Schmidt". Goodreads. "Karen admitted to Levenkron she was taking an unfathomable number of laxative tablets—eighty to ninety Dulcolax a night. The ingestion of large quantities of laxatives did not surprise Levenkron. [...] What did stun Levenkron was Karen’s next casual disclosure. She was also taking thyroid medication—ten pills a day. He was shocked, especially when she explained that she had a normal thyroid."

• Schmidt, Randy (2010). Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter. ISBN 978-1-556-52976-4. pg 43-45, 278, 425

• Schmidt, Randy (2012). Yesterday Once More: The Carpenters Reader. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-613-74417-8 pg 21, 245, 1903

• Chris Willman (February 4, 2013). "Karen Carpenter's Death, 30 Years On: The Tipping Point For Eating Disorder Awareness". Yahoo! Music.

• Seiler, Michael (February 4, 1983). "Karen Carpenter, Half of Soft-Rock Duo, Dead at 32". Los Angeles Times. pg 2.

• Markel, Michelle (February 9, 1983). "1,000 Attend Rites for Karen Carpenter". Los Angeles Times. pg 5, 24

• "Irregular Heartbeat Killed Singer". The Victoria Advocate. Victoria, Texas. March 12, 1983

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q1250861, en:Wikipedia