Like an old love song gone for much too long You hear it once again and it carries you away...

The life of Karen Carpenter--from a close family and modest background which were always very important to her, to the pinnacle of popular attention and acclaim that, besides being very demanding, was much the product of extraordinary hard work and dedication--is a most inspiring one.

BORN IN New Haven, Connecticut, Thursday, March 2, 1950, 11:45 a.m. Second child of Agnes Reuwer (Tatum) and Harold Bertram Carpenter. Lived with her older brother Richard and younger cousin Joan at 55 Hall Street, attending Nathan Hale School and Park Methodist Church. In June 1963, moved with her family to Downey, California. After settling in at 13024 Fidler Avenue, attended Downey High School and played drums in the school band. Studied music at California State University at Long Beach. Pursued a very successful musical career. Married August 31, 1980, to Thomas James Burris of Newport Beach. Separated November 1981. Unexpectedly died February 4, 1983, at her parents' Newville Avenue home in Downey. Laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cypress.
    Basic facts. Many elements of which are shared by most people. But they barely begin to tell the story of a person's life, especially about that of someone as exceptional as Karen Carpenter.
    This page will attempt to do more, by bringing you greater details of her life--its heights and its struggles--that in a mere thirty-two years was lived as fully as many whose lives have been twice as long.
    Additions, corrections, and updates are made periodically to this information.

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