Kate McGarrigle

Kate McGarrigle (born February 6, 1946, Montréal, Quebec, Canada - died January 18, 2010, Montréal, Quebec, Canada) was a Canadian folk musician and singer-songwriter. Her music is a mix of Gallic style, from her roots in French-Canadian folk music, and bluegrass and country. She was a multi-instrumentalist who played guitarr, banjo, violin, piano and Accordion among other instruments.

In the 1960s Kate was first part of the Mountain City Four (MC4), a group that played the Montreal folk scene, before moving to the US and touring the North-East on the folk club circuit in a duo with Kate & Anna McGarrigle. After putting their careers on hold for most of the 1980's to raise their children, they then made a successful comeback in the 1990s. She was made a Member of the Order Of Canada in 1994 and received the Governor's General Award in 2004.

In 2006, she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called clear-cell sarcoma. Two years later she set up The Kate McGarrigle Fund (in the US known as the Rufus Wainwright from her marriage to Loudon Wainwright III.