Singer/Songwriter Carole King Honored In DC

Carole King (Bloomberg photo)

The first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, praised Carole King, the first female recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

“She could travel the world and never be a stranger. Her imagination has empowered her fans,” Pelosi said of King, a singer-songwriter whose career spans five decades and includes classics like “You’ve Got a Friend.”

“I wouldn’t dare name a favorite,” Pelosi, now the House minority leader, said before sitting down for lunch in the Members’ Room of the Library of Congress, which for the last five years has presented the prize in honor of George and Ira Gershwin.

According to bloomberg.com, King was all smiles in her pink blazer, working the room like an adroit politician, shaking hands with everyone from Sharon Percy Rockefeller, the chief executive of local PBS station WETA, to the musicians who quietly played her tunes during the meal of lobster soup and chicken salad.

King, 71, is a Democratic fundraiser and passionate environmental activist. She thanked her host, Librarian of Congress James Billington, for his support of popular musicians. “For a long time we were kind of the stepchild,” she said.

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