Kathryn Ann Fleming (October 6, 1965 – December 14, 2006) was an American actress, artist, singer, and

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

narrator and producer. She was the owner and executive producer at Cedar House Audio, an audio production company specializing in

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

, that is located in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

, United States.

Biography

Fleming was born in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...

in 1965. She grew up in the

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

area and graduated from the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest instit ...

in 1987 (

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

Religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

). Fleming studied at the

Actors Theatre of Louisville Actors Theatre of Louisville is a non-profit performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Actors Theatre was founded in 1964 following the merging of two local companies, Actors, Inc. and Theatre Louisville, operated by Louis ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, and was an alumna of the 1987/1988 Apprentice Company. After a stint as a professional actor, she branched into

s in the mid-1990s. Fleming recorded well over 200 titles, many under the

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

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

Ruth Ozeki Ruth Ozeki (born March 12, 1956) 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), an ...

'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 , )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...

'' by

Ann Patchett Ann Patchett (born December 2, 1963) is an American author. She received the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in the same year, for her novel ''Bel Canto (novel), Bel Canto''. Patchett's othe ...

, ''

The Falls The Falls may refer to: * ''The Falls'' (Oates novel), 2004 novel by Joyce Carol Oates * ''The Falls'' (Rankin novel), 2001 crime novel by Ian Rankin * The Falls (mall), an open-air shopping mall in Kendall, Florida * The Falls, Nova Scotia, a ...

'' 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 nonfiction. Her novels ''Black ...

, ''Baker Towers'' by Jennifer Haigh, and "any title" by

Louise Erdrich Karen Louise Erdrich ( ; born June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dako ...

. 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 2001. 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 an officially retired American single-seat, subsonic, twin-engined, stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was ...

, the US Air Force's first stealth plane, and its crucial role in winning the first Gulf War. Fleming was killed when she was trapped inside the flooded basement of her Madison Valley studio during the Hanukkah Eve wind storm of 2006. 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

Video games

References

External links

*
Cedar House AudioAudioFile magazine Golden Voices profileObituary on AfterEllen.comBook World Loses Narrator Kate Fleming
December 19, 2006, on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

; Two minutes and 52 seconds. (

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP, officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to retronym, distinguish it from Windows Media Player (2022), the new Windows Media Player introduced with Windows 11) is the first media player (application soft ...

RealPlayer RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player (software), media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimed ...

).
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 American lesbian actresses American lesbian artists American lesbian musicians American LGBTQ singers Audiobook narrators College of William & Mary alumni Deaths by drowning in Washington (state) Deaths in floods Lesbian singers LGBTQ people from Virginia LGBTQ people from Washington (state) Natural disaster deaths in Washington (state) 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women singers 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people