Kathy Westmoreland

Who is Kathy Westmoreland?

Kathy Westmoreland is an American singer.

After growing up in Abilene, Texas, the daughter of a professional singer and a professional dancer, she moved to California in 1962 with her sisters and brother Brent. She teamed up with friend and Garden Grove High School classmate Steve Martin in a musical comedy act, working together at the Birdcage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm and playing local coffee houses.

A soprano, Westmoreland sang musical comedies and opera, performing oratorios and traveling with the Metropolitan Opera National Company by the age of eighteen. Returning to California, she joined the singing group The Sandpipers, who had a major hit with the song "Guantanamera." She became a studio session singer, appearing on numerous television shows such as those of Red Skelton, Tim Conway and Bobby Darin. She was one of Jimmy Joyce's singers, Ray Conniff's singers, Johnny Mann and many others, including vocals on recording sessions with hundreds of major artists. In 1970 she was hired to sing backup vocals for Elvis Presley, both in the studio and on stage, where he would introduce her as "the little girl with the beautiful high voice." She continued to perform with Presley until his death in 1977 and sang at his funeral at his request.