Obituaries : Katie Webster; Blues Singer and Pianist

Katie Webster, the colorful blues singer and pianist affectionately known as the “Swamp Boogie Queen,” has died. She was 63.

Webster died Sunday of a heart attack at her home in League City, Texas, near her native Houston. A 1993 stroke had damaged her eyesight and her ability to move her left hand, severely restricting her work.

“Few ‘bluesicians’ are [more] obscure than Houston-born pianist-vocalist Katie Webster, and even fewer are less deserving of such obscurity,” wrote Times reviewer Don Waller when Webster appeared at McCabe’s in Santa Monica in 1986.

Waller reported that Webster “wowed the crowd with her dryly humorous patter and her equally humorous, two-fisted flights of pianistic fancy” as she segued from classic blues to boogie-woogie to swamp-pop hits such as “Sea of Love.”

Born Kathryn Jewel Thorne, Webster first studied gospel and classical music. Her minister father and missionary mother, wary of the influence of popular music, kept the piano locked and allowed her to play only when supervised.

She smuggled a radio into her bedroom and listened to the forbidden music anyway. As a teenager, she lived with more tolerant relatives and by 15 was a session pianist for many recording stars. She helped record more than 500 singles in the 1950s and 1960s. She also played in clubs in the New Orleans area.

Webster toured with Otis Redding from 1964 until he was killed in a plane crash in 1967. She was so devastated that she all but stopped performing for more than a decade.

She began performing anew in the early 1980s, successfully touring Europe more than 15 times and becoming a favorite at U.S. blues festivals.

She recorded extensively for Alligator Records with such singers as Robert Cray and Bonnie Raitt. “Deluxe Edition,” an album compiling many of Webster’s recordings, was released in February.

Webster conducted seminars and workshops at colleges and high schools in the United States and Europe. She also worked with youngsters.

“I went into some of the elementary schools where they had the little children in the second, third and fourth grades,” she told The Times in 1986. “When I’d say I was going to play some boogie-woogie, they’d just laugh and clap their little hands, but some of them would come up to the piano and want to know how I played it. It made me feel real good because they were so interested.”

When Webster performed at San Diego’s annual Michelob Street Scene in 1990, a reviewer wrote: “Webster, in particular, was a delight. Holding court behind a grand piano, her sensuous swamp boogie made it difficult for anyone to stand still.”

Other Southern California venues for Webster’s performances have included the Long Beach Blues Festival at Cal State Long Beach, the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach.

No information was available on survivors.