Karen Carpenter (b. 1950 – d. 1983) passed away on February 4th, 1983 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 32. She was an American singer, drummer, and recording artist, best known as the lead vocalist and drummer of the pop-rock duo The Carpenters. Karen began her musical career as a drummer in 1964, performing with her brother Richard. She was most famously part of The Carpenters, recording 11 studio albums, which produced several hit singles, such as Close to You, We’ve Only Just Begun, Rainy Days and Mondays, Superstar, and Only Yesterday. The Carpenters also earned three Grammy Award nominations for best vocal performance. Karen is remembered for her voice and her achievements in the music industry, and is a prominent female vocalist in the music world. She is poetically remembered with the lyric, “That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang” from the song Sing.