KAREN CARPENTER
FRIENDS SHARE MEMORIES OF THE BELOVED SINGER’S AMAZING, COMPLICATED & TRAGIC LIFE
The “Close to You” singer’s friends share memories of the talented, complicated star and shed new light on her personal struggles.
Her warm, honeyed voice sold more than 80 million records, but Karen Carpenter wasn’t above singing “Happy Birthday” at a party. Her close friend Cristina Ferrare remembers a backyard barbecue where the sound of Karen’s spontaneous rendition of the tune stunned everyone. “None of us wanted to open up our mouths to sing along because it was so beautiful,” she tells
Closer. “[The birthday girl] started to cry. The look on her face was, ‘Wow, Karen Carpenter sang to me!’ It was a lovely moment.”
By the mid-1970s, the Carpenters had become one of America’s most beloved and successful musical acts — thanks in part to Karen’s gorgeous three-octave voice. At the height of the brothersister duo’s popularity, their songs dominated radio and were the soundtrack to nearly every wedding and graduation. Yet underneath the sweet melodies and wholesome image lay a dark secret: Karen struggled with anorexia nervosa, a disease that few understood at that time.
Karen spent much of her young life in awe of her older brother, Richard, who was seen as a musical prodigy by their domineering mother, Agnes. “The family’s goal was that he become a piano superstar; Karen, from a very young age, was groomed to support him,” explains Randy L. Schmidt, author of Little Girl Blue: The Life of
Karen Carpenter. While Agnes idolized Richard, Karen, a tomboy who took up the drums in high school, was a disappointment. “She wasn’t her mother’s ideal image for what a young lady should be,” explains Schmidt.
Despite these difficult family dynamics, the siblings grew up very close. “We enjoyed the same music and always seemed to know what the other was thinking,” recalls Richard, who enlisted his sister as a drummer in his early bands. When it became obvious that Karen had a strong voice, she also began singing lead from behind the drums. “She was gifted,” Richard remembers. “She could do the drum fills while she was singing ballads, and [it] wouldn’t affect her voice whatsoever.” But not everyone was impressed. “Karen’s mother never told her she was a good singer,” recalls Frenda Franklin, a longtime friend.
WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN
By 1969, the Carpenters had become a duo. “Downtown” singer Petula Clark recalls being