This obituary was originally published on Feb. 5, 1983. It is being republished for a package for Women’s History Month.
The pop singer Karen Carpenter, who with her brother Richard sold more than 30 million records as the Carpenters, died Friday of cardiac arrest at Downey Community Hospital in Downey, Calif. The 32-year-old singer was found unconscious by her mother, Agnes Carpenter, at her parents’ home in Downey, a suburb of Los Angeles, and was taken to the hospital.
The Carpenters were a major pop team for the first part of the 1970’s, with 17 million-selling albums. Miss Carpenter’s contralto was heard on such soft-rock singles as “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” and a remake of “Please Mr. Postman.” Their version of Burt Bacharach’s “Close to You” won two Grammy awards in 1970, and their album “The Carpenters” won a third Grammy in 1971. That same year, their version of “For All We Know” won the Academy Award for best song.
Karen Carpenter was born in New Haven, Conn., on March 2, 1950. She and her older brother, Richard, started a pop-jazz trio with a friend in California in 1965, with Richard on keyboards and Karen on drums. The group won a battle of the bands at the Hollywood Bowl and was signed by RCA Records, but the two albums they recorded for the label were never released; they were considered “too soft.” The trio subsequently disbanded.
Incorporated Vocals
In their next group, the Carpenters began to incorporate vocals. Eventually they developed a smooth, densely layered sound built around Miss Carpenter’s voice and Richard Carpenter’s arrangements, and were signed to A&M Records in 1970. On the first Carpenters recordings, Karen Carpenter played drums, but she eventually gave that up to concentrate on vocals. Through 1975, two or three singles by the Carpenters regularly placed in the pop Top 10 each year, and in 1974 they performed at the Nixon White House.
The Carpenters canceled an extensive European tour in 1975 because Miss Carpenter was suffering from nervous and physical exhaustion; she was bedridden for six weeks. They continued to record through the 1970’s, but were less successful commercially. Their last album, “Made in America,” was recorded in 1981, and met with only moderate success. According to Paul Bloch, a spokesman for the Carpenters, the brother and sister were planning to tour and record a new album this year.
In 1980 Miss Carpenter married a real-estate developer, Thomas J. Burris of Newport Beach, Calif. Mr. Bloch said the couple were getting a divorce. He also said Miss Carpenter had suffered from anorexia during 1981 and 1982, but had recovered. “She looked great,” Mr. Bloch said. “She was anxious to record her new album, and she was in good spirits.”
In addition to her mother and brother, Miss Carpenter is survived by her father, Harold, also of Downey.
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