Karen Carpenter

Diagnoses

Vocation

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Family

American musician, a member of a popular brother-sister singing team "The Carpenters," who sold millions of hit records in the early '70s. They made densely layered, pop-oriented demo tapes which caught the attention of Herb Alpert who signed them to A&M Records, 1970. They released their first album in November 1970, "Ticket to Ride." "Close to You" sold over a million records, No. 1 in the U.S. and several other countries. Karen had a brief marriage to Tom Burris, but showed no signs of emotional distress serious enough to cause a breakdown. In late 1981, she went to her brother with the admission that "something was wrong" when she and the family realized that her lack of appetite was a serious problem. Carpenter moved inexorably into anorexia nervosa, but seemed on the edge of recovery in 1982, With treatment, she managed to pump her weight from a frail 80 lbs on her 5' 4" (1.63 m) frame to a nearly normal 110 lbs (50 kg). She and Richard were working on their 12th album, "Voice of the Heart." She was her bubbly, energetic self until the end, when, after an eight-year battle, Karen died at age 32 in her parent's home of cardiac arrest on 4 February 1983 in Downey, California. Link to Wikipedia biography