Literary figure Kathi Goldmark dead at 63

SAN FRANCISCO, May 27 (UPI) -- U.S. author and country-rock singer Kathi Kamen Goldmark died in San Francisco after a long battle with breast cancer, friends and family said. She was 63.

Goldmark, whom the Los Angeles Times book blog called "a beloved figure in the San Francisco literary scene," was surrounded by the likes of Maya Angelou, Amy Tan and Dave Barry during her final hours at UCSF Medical Center Thursday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In 1992, Goldmark founded the rock group the Rock Bottom Remainders, with herself, authors Stephen King, Tan, Barry, Mitch Albom and Scott Turow, among others. The group has played for 20 years at the American Booksellers Association meeting in California, raising nearly $2 million for charity, The Miami Herald reported.

Goldmark had written numerous songs, essays, columns and books, including the novel "And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You."

Barry, her brother-in-law and Miami Herald columnist, met Goldmark in San Francisco when she escorted him on a book tour.

"Kathi was a great gatherer of people, a collector of people and she was always up for a party," he said. "She was like this wild woman, in a good way, always playing in a band or making music."