Soprano from Texarkana, Arkansas, who already had a record and TV appearance under her belt by the age of five. Of course, it did not hurt that she came from a musical family. Her dad and sisters were all singers, her mom a dancer, and her brother was a singer and drummer.
While still in high school, she was part of a comedy team that performed at the Bird Cage in L.A. The other half of the comedy team was none other than Steve Martin. At seventeen, she went on tour with the National Metropolitan Opera.
Eventually, she wound up back in California and was a member of The Sandpipers, whose big hit was “Guantanamera”. Other groups with which she appeared include The Jimmy Joyce Singers, The Johnny Mann Singers, and The Ray Conniff Singers.
Her most famous turn was a seven-year stint with Elvis Presley, beginning in 1970 and ending with his death. The two were romantically linked throughout those seven years, and Kathy wrote about it in the simply titled Elvis and Kathy. A couple of her recent CDs are Elvis tributes: Heavenly Father is a gospel album that contains the song “My Father Watches Over Me”, which Kathy sang at the King’s funeral; We Had it All is all covers of Elvis songs.
When not making music, Kathy is devoted to animals and charity work.
Sources:
- http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Kathy-Westmoreland
- http://www.elvispresleynews.com/KathyWestmoreland.html
- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Westmoreland
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/elvis_presley/66271
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/elvis,%20the%20guys%20&%20the%20music/106150
- http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/elvis_tribute_artists/103250
- http://www.kathywestmoreland.us/index.html