Iced tea was the hardest drink she consumed, and the only needles she used were for needlepoint. Her struggles with eating disorders would later raise awareness of anorexia and body dysmorphia. People.com The Carpenters were at their zenith in 1973, when then President Richard Nixon introduced the duo to a glittering White House audience as “young America at its very best.”In the aftershock, friends wondered if Karen had tried too hard to live up to that description, had perhaps died trying. “Her parents are very nice people, but they controlled her early life and continued to try and do so over the years.” One incident from early in Karen and Richard’s career may be typical. They moved to California from Baltimore, so Richard could be closer to the music industry. Funeral is 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 18th at Pleasant View Baptist Church with burial in Thomas Cemetery. If you would like to opt out of browser push notifications, please refer to the following instructions specific to your device and browser: Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? A co-worker who had seen her early last year said she resembled “a living skull.” Added another, “She appeared to be a tormented and unhappy woman.”Indeed, as far back as 1971, when the Carpenters were soaring on their early hits, Karen was “psychotic about her weight,” an acquaintance recalls.
“She had a classic pear-shaped figure—she was chubby, and she was very self-conscious about it.” Tom Burris, the real estate developer whom Karen married in 1980 and from whom she was separated last year, says she was suffering from anorexia “for about nine years.” The term, though, was not widely known in 1975, when Karen slipped frighteningly from her performing weight of 110 to a shadowy 90 pounds. Two months later they were engaged.Although Burris insists “We always got along, always cared about each other,” they soon grew apart. It would take a minimum of a year, probably three, to get you well. But after a long bout with anorexia, says Dr. Joel Yager of UCLA’s Eating Disorders Clinic, “the most common cause of death is low serum potassium, which can cause an irregularity in the heartbeat.” Karen had spent almost all of 1982 in New York undergoing treatment, and had lifted her weight from a gaunt 85 to 108 pounds—very near normal for her frame and height, 5’4″.
Yet for all the soothing middle-of-the-road appeal she and her composer-arranger brother, Richard, 37, brought to 41 Carpenters records—which have sold 80 million copies and won three Grammy Awards—she had led a long, lonely struggle against another form of self-destruction, anorexia nervosa.She collapsed at about 9 a.m. in the wardrobe closet of the room her parents have always kept for her at the family home in suburban Downey, Calif., about 30 minutes from Los Angeles. Verify and try again.Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive?This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review.Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried.For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab.All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. When "The Karen Carpenter Story" finally aired New Year's Day 1989, Schmidt, then a teenager, was one of the "spellbound" viewers. Verify and try again.Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive?This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review.Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried.For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab.All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. “When a marriage breaks up, it’s a devastating thing.”Last December Karen returned to L.A. O’Neill was concerned: “Putting yourself in the same environment where the problems first developed without totally recovering can cause setbacks.” But by most accounts Karen was suffused with new energy.
The duo won a Hollywood Bowl Battle of the Bands, and after three years of scrounging for work were signed by A&M co-founder Herb Alpert.“It was interesting the way they made records,” a close colleague observes. Karen Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Agnes Reuwer (née Tatum) and Harold Bertram Carpenter. A system error has occurred.