by Anthony Glassman

Montclair, N.J.--One of Ohio?s best-known singer-songwriters passed away on July 14 at the age of 30, ending an almost two-year battle against a rare tumor that left her scarred and debilitated.

Katie Reider, a beloved fixture of the women?s music scene in Ohio and northern Kentucky and a native of Cincinnati, was struck with a myofibroblastic inflammatory tumor that grew in her upper jaw, first noticing some pain in February 2006.

It wasn?t until July 2007 that doctors properly identified the growth, which by that point had severely damaged her jaw.

It spread into her sinus, and cost her the sight in her left eye. She began treatment and the tumor shrank, but in February 2008, it began growing again. The pain from the tumor was accompanied by a case of shingles and the discovery of a lesion on her esophagus that deprived her of her voice.

After undergoing aggressive therapy, the tumor shrank to less than one-tenth its largest size, which seemed to be good news, and plans were made for reconstructive surgery to enable Reider to speak more clearly and return her appearance to a semblance of normalcy.

However, the dramatic shrinkage also dislodged the tumor, and she began bleeding from her mouth on June 29. The bleeding, interspersed with trips to various hospitals, continued intermittently for two weeks, before Reider died on her way to Beth Israel Hospital in New York City.

Reider, the daughter of a musician with a syndicated Cincinnati show popular in the 1970s and ?80s, started recording in 1998 and released four independent albums.

She was a constant fixture on the music scene in her native Cincinnati and in Columbus, and the Katie Reider Band often played Pride-related events like Rockin? in the Streets.

She is survived by her partner, Karen, and their two children, Aiden, 3, and Koen, 1. Other survivors include her father, Rob, her brothers Robbie and Andy, and her sisters Kristin and Abby.

A memorial service will be held on July 26 at 11 am at Crossroads Church, 3500 Madison Rd. in Cincinnati. Donations to her family to cover her medical expenses can be made at http://katiereider.blogspot.com, which has a $1 download of Katie?s Voice, a nine-song collection of her work, and a complete timeline of her valiant fight.