Karen Carpenter, who died 26 years ago today.
Twenty-six years ago today, American singer Karen Carpenter passed away after suffering heart-failure, brought on by her struggle with anorexia. She was just thirty-two years old.
Much has been written about her since her untimely death and there has also been much speculation. Speculation about whether or not she died having finally got a handle on what had been happening to her and was managing to turn a corner, or whether or not she was still firmly in the vice-like grip of a terrible condition. Prior to her death, Karen had been receiving treatment for her anorexia and seemed able to maintain her weight and eat regularly.
Karen had an appointment at her lawyer’s office on the afternoon of the 4th February 1983, to sign divorce papers to formally end her marriage to her husband, Tom Burris, whom she hadn’t seen since the November of 1981. After her visit to her lawyer’s office, Karen had been planning a shopping trip with her mother, Agnes, as well as a weekend away with her friend, Olivia Newton-John. It’s very sad that the shopping trip, the weekend away with Olivia, nor any other plans she may have had, or any of the fantastic songs she had yet to sing, ever came to pass.
I was nine years old when Karen Carpenter died and it wasn’t until about five or six years later, that I can remember hearing any of the music by “The Carpenters”. All I knew about the singer was what was told to me by a friend when “Yesterday Once More” happened to come on the radio in around 1989. This particular friend had been to see The Carpenters in concert in London in 1976 and “she was thin then!” my friend said. I had no idea who “she” was and what her being thin had to do with anything. All I knew was that it didn’t bode well. Something, somewhere told me that the woman behind this amazing and wonderful singing voice was no longer around. The haunting quality of what I was hearing when songs like “Close To You”, “Superstar”, “Top Of The World” and “Rainy Days and Mondays” came on the radio portrayed a loneliness and an overwhelming feeling of sadness and tragedy.
In such pre-internet times, I couldn’t jump online to find out what had really happened to Karen, but I almost didn’t want to know. If I didn’t know the truth, then maybe it wasn’t true ? The logic of a teenager.
It was on New Year’s Eve 1989 when the film, “The Karen Carpenter Story”, came on television that some of the missing pieces of my knowledge of Karen’s life started to fall into place. Before this film, I didn’t even know that Karen played the drums. Even up until the final scene, when Karen is saying goodnight to her parents and she walks upstairs to bed on the night of February 3rd 1983, I’m still trying to convince myself that a happy ending is somehow possible. Then the words come on the screen at the end of the film that Karen suffered heart failure and passed away the next morning. I felt so very sad that someone so beautiful and talented could have met such a tragic end and every time I’ve watched that film again since, there is that tiny part of me, the part where truth and logic don‘t exist, that still wants the happy ending.
Much has been written about her since her untimely death and there has also been much speculation. Speculation about whether or not she died having finally got a handle on what had been happening to her and was managing to turn a corner, or whether or not she was still firmly in the vice-like grip of a terrible condition. Prior to her death, Karen had been receiving treatment for her anorexia and seemed able to maintain her weight and eat regularly.
Karen had an appointment at her lawyer’s office on the afternoon of the 4th February 1983, to sign divorce papers to formally end her marriage to her husband, Tom Burris, whom she hadn’t seen since the November of 1981. After her visit to her lawyer’s office, Karen had been planning a shopping trip with her mother, Agnes, as well as a weekend away with her friend, Olivia Newton-John. It’s very sad that the shopping trip, the weekend away with Olivia, nor any other plans she may have had, or any of the fantastic songs she had yet to sing, ever came to pass.
I was nine years old when Karen Carpenter died and it wasn’t until about five or six years later, that I can remember hearing any of the music by “The Carpenters”. All I knew about the singer was what was told to me by a friend when “Yesterday Once More” happened to come on the radio in around 1989. This particular friend had been to see The Carpenters in concert in London in 1976 and “she was thin then!” my friend said. I had no idea who “she” was and what her being thin had to do with anything. All I knew was that it didn’t bode well. Something, somewhere told me that the woman behind this amazing and wonderful singing voice was no longer around. The haunting quality of what I was hearing when songs like “Close To You”, “Superstar”, “Top Of The World” and “Rainy Days and Mondays” came on the radio portrayed a loneliness and an overwhelming feeling of sadness and tragedy.
In such pre-internet times, I couldn’t jump online to find out what had really happened to Karen, but I almost didn’t want to know. If I didn’t know the truth, then maybe it wasn’t true ? The logic of a teenager.
It was on New Year’s Eve 1989 when the film, “The Karen Carpenter Story”, came on television that some of the missing pieces of my knowledge of Karen’s life started to fall into place. Before this film, I didn’t even know that Karen played the drums. Even up until the final scene, when Karen is saying goodnight to her parents and she walks upstairs to bed on the night of February 3rd 1983, I’m still trying to convince myself that a happy ending is somehow possible. Then the words come on the screen at the end of the film that Karen suffered heart failure and passed away the next morning. I felt so very sad that someone so beautiful and talented could have met such a tragic end and every time I’ve watched that film again since, there is that tiny part of me, the part where truth and logic don‘t exist, that still wants the happy ending.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment