Karen Anne Carpenter was born on the 2nd March 1950 in New Haven, Connecticut USA, and was a successful singer and drummer, best known for performing in the duo The Carpenters, co-formed alongside her brother, Richard Carpenter. Karen Carpenter was active in the entertainment industry from 1965 to 1983.
How much was the net worth of Karen Carpenter? It had been estimated by authoritative sources that the overall size of her wealth was as much as $10 million, as of data converted to the present day.
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Karen Carpenter Net Worth $10 Million
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To begin with, the family moved to California in 1983, and Karen studied at Downey High School and enrolled in the school band. Once she tried playing the drums and immediately fell in love with the instrument. Meanwhile, Richard entered the Long Beach University in California, where he met Frank Pooler. The three formed the group The Trio in 1965, playing in clubs throughout Hollywood; they played “The Girl From Ipanema”, a composition of Richard Carpenter “Iced tea” and other songs.
In 1969, The Carpenters formed by brother and sister signed a contract with A & M Records, which was owned by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. Their first album was entitled “Offering” (1969), which was not very popular but reaching 54th position on the Billboard Hot 100. The following year, Herb Alpert suggested that they record the song “(They Long to Be) Close to You” which reached the top position on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. This was the first number one, and later they had many singles that topped the charts including “We’ve Only Just Begun” (1970), “For All We Know” (1971), “Rainy Days and Mondays” (1971), “Superstar” (1971) and others. Starting from 1970 until the death of Karen, 10 successful studio albums were released, and all of them received certifications for sales, as well as entering the music charts in USA and UK. The most popular albums were “Close to You” (1970), “Carpenters” (1971), “A Song for You” (1972) and “Now & Then” (1973), which certainly helped the rise of Karen’s net worth.
From 1973, Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa, an unknown disease in those times. However, in 1975, the readers of the magazine Playboy chose her as the best drummer of the year. Encouraged by her manager, Jerry Weintraub, Karen embarked on the project of a solo album in 1979, with Phil Ramone working as a producer of this album. (Meanwhile her brother Richard was admitted to a clinic to recover from his addiction to sleeping pills.) The recordings were made in late 1979 and early 1980. However, Karen’s first and only solo album “Karen Carpenter” (1996) was released posthumously.
Finally, in the personal life of a singer, she dated many celebrities including Alan Osmond, Steve Martin, Mark Harmon, Terry Ellis, Tony Danza and Mike Curb. In 1980, she married Thomas James Burris, but the two divorced in 1982 after an allegedly very turbulent relationship.
Karen died at age 32 on the 4th February 1983, in Downey, California because of a heart attack. There is evidence that her death was due to constant usage of ipecac syrup, a medicine used in hospitals to induce vomiting. It is known to act as a poison when used for long periods. Carpenter used this substance for the last months of her life, apparently causing irreversible damage to the heart muscle. This, coupled with malnutrition and general weakness, caused the total collapse of her body. Karen Carpenter is buried in the family mausoleum of Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, County of Los Angeles, California.
