Carpenter Gone 24 Years - the Angelic Voiced Karen Carpenter Passed Away on February 4th, 1983

On Sunday, February 4th, 2007, legendary singer Karen Carpenter will officially be gone from us for 24 years. The "Star on Earth, Star in Heaven", as some people refer to Karen, although I like to think of her as "A Star On Earth, a Star and Angel in Heaven", is to this day deeply missed and widely embraced across the world. It's hard to believe just how much time has passed since Karen's tragic death, she would be 56 years old as I write this today, and in my opinion would still be blessing the world with her one in a million voice.

As a Carpenters fan I never grow tired of listening to their music, the wonderful arrangements of Richard Carpenter along with the angelic and mysterious voice of Karen really made them a gift for all of us. Karen's voice was simply amazing, she was capable of singing any style of music she wanted to. We never really got to hear her voice in another fashion other than the Carpenters sound. She did record a solo album and in my opinion the album received some very unfair criticism at the time, and unfortunately Karen decided to have the album shelved. It was nice to see this album finally being released in 1996 with Richard's permission. The sound on this album is very different from what we are all used to hearing Karen perform, but I think it just proved that the sky was the limit for that beautiful voice.

In watching old footage of Karen it's obvious she had a wonderful personality, and I can only imagine the things she could have shared with this world had she lived. One major positive that came from her death however was that Anorexia was finally given the attention and focus that it deserved, and perhaps Karen's death helped saved other young women suffering from this same disease. Karen Carpenter became the face of Anorexia Nervosa, it's unfortunate that she had to become the face of such a severe and terrifying eating disorder, but Karen's voice still lives on today in all of the wonderful recordings her and Richard created together.