The acclaimed folk singer Kate McGarrigle has died from a rare form of cancer that was diagnosed three and a half years ago.

She died at her home just weeks before her 64th birthday. McGarrigle recorded a series of critically praised albums with her sister Anna between 1976 and 2005. Their compositions have been recorded by such artists as Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Billy Bragg and Anne Sofie von Otter with Elvis Costello. The singer-songwriter's marriage to singer Loudon Wainwright III  ended in 1977, and the couple had two children, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, now both celebrated artists in their own right.
 
21/01/10