Kathryn Ann Fleming (October 6, 1965 – December 14, 2006) was an American actress, artist, singer, and award-winning audiobook narrator and producer. She was the owner and executive producer at Cedar House Audio, an audio production company specializing in spoken word that is located in Seattle, Washington, United States.

Biography

Fleming was born in Arlington, Virginia in 1965. She grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1987 ( Bachelor of Arts, Religion). Fleming studied at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, and was an alumna of the 1987/1988 Apprentice Company. After a stint as a professional actor, she branched into audiobooks in the mid-1990s. Fleming recorded well over 200 titles, many under the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Anna Fields. In 2004, Fleming won the Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for her performance of

Ruth Ozeki Ruth Ozeki is an American-Canadian author, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. Her books and films, including the novels ''My Year of Meats'' (1998), ''All Over Creation'' (2003), '' A Tale for the Time Being'' (2013), and ''The Book of Form and ...

's '' All Over Creation''. In a July 1, 2005, interview with the William & Mary Alumni Association, Fleming noted several of her favorite narration projects: ''

Bel Canto Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associat ...

'' by Ann Patchett, '' The Falls'' by

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

, ''Baker Towers'' by

Jennifer Haigh Jennifer Haigh is an American novelist and short story writer. Life She was born in Barnesboro, a Western Pennsylvania coal town 85 miles northeast of Pittsburgh in Cambria County. She attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and ...

, and "any title" by Louise Erdrich. In addition to her work on audiobooks, she also narrated the Military Channel's six-episode series ''Navy Seals'', which chronicled the six-month basic training process for US Navy Seals in 2007. Another military-themed narration was for the Discovery Channel documentary ''Secrets of the Stealth: Nighthawk'', on the

F-117 Nighthawk The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational airc ...

, the US Air Force's first stealth plane, and its crucial role in winning the first Gulf War. Fleming died when a flash flood trapped her inside her Madison Valley basement studio during the

Hanukkah Eve wind storm of 2006 The Hanukkah Eve windstorm of 2006 was a powerful Pacific Northwest windstorm in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and southern British Columbia, Canada between December 14, 2006 and December 15, 2006. The storm produced hurricane-f ...

. She is survived by her wife and partner of nine years, Charlene Strong. At the hospital, Strong was denied access to see Fleming until permission was granted by an out-of-state relative. The experience led Strong to advocate for legislation that was eventually passed as Washington's Domestic Partnership Law. After Fleming's death, the City of Seattle commissioned a report to determine the cause of flash flooding in Fleming's neighborhood. As of 2013, the house where Fleming died had been replaced by a garden, and the city has completed a stormwater project in the neighborhood. The project features a reservoir capable of holding excess storm runoff when the rest of the system is over capacity. A memorial at the site is inscribed with words that Fleming would say before going on stage as an actress: "Be a light. Be a flame. Be a beacon."

Filmography

Film

References

External links

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Cedar House AudioAudioFile magazine Golden Voices profileObituary on AfterEllen.comBook World Loses Narrator Kate Fleming
December 19, 2006, on National Public Radio; Two minutes and 52 seconds. ( Windows Media Player, RealPlayer).
Add your voice to the chorus calling for equality and dignity
, Guest column by Charlene Strong, Seattle Times, August 9, 2007.
In tragedy's wake, an unlikely activist is born
, Seattle Gay News, November 16, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Kate 1965 births 2006 deaths Actresses from Seattle Actresses from Washington, D.C. American voice actresses Audiobook narrators College of William & Mary alumni Deaths by drowning in the United States Deaths in floods American lesbian actresses LGBT people from Virginia LGBT people from Washington (state) Natural disaster deaths in Washington (state)