Katie Reider

Kathryn Ann "Katie" Reider (23 May 1978 – 14 July 2008) was an American singer-songwriter from Cincinnati, Ohio. Reider described her own music as "Folk/pop/rock fused together into some sort of 'genre-less' category." Reider released four albums, won five Cincinnati music awards and had her songs featured on television programming by ABC, Lifetime, and on the WB's Dawson's Creek before health problems emerged in 2006 that ultimately led to her death two years later. Shortly after her death, the New York Times stated that Reider was "a singer-songwriter with a huge following back home and a growing national fan base, who seemed on the cusp of much larger success when her life was destroyed by a rare tumor that ate into her jaw and face, stole her voice, left her blind in one eye and finally killed her (in July 2008) at the age of 30."

Biography

Early life

Reider was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on 23 May 1978 to Gaile and Rob Reider and grew up as one of six children in nearby Montgomery. Reider grew up surrounded by music. Rob Reider was a singer and band leader on the syndicated entertainment program The Bob Braun Show during the 1970s and early '80s. Reider's parents gave her first guitar when she was in fifth grade. It was a red Gibson Epiphone. Reider's parents were supportive of her interest in music. Reider would later recall, "I started out singing in front of my family in front of the fireplace. I would take out a poker from next to the fireplace and use it as a microphone."