Thomas James Burris

Her friend Carol Curb thought she knew someone Karen should meet.

Tom Burris was a thirty-nine-year-old divorced real estate developer, and Karen was initially reluctant to go on a blind date because uncertainty simply was not how she liked to organize her life.

She eventually agreed because Carol and her husband, Tony Scotti, would be joining them, and the dinner went so well that Karen and Tom were dating within days and engaged roughly two months later.

When Karen called Olivia Newton-John with the news, she asked whether Olivia was sitting down.

And just as Karen's first major attempt at professional independence was being put away, she met a man who seemed to offer her an entirely different kind of independence.

His name was Tom Burris.

Within months, Karen Carpenter would marry him.

The Carpenters were back together professionally.