Kate McGarrigle, the Canadian singer-songwriter and one half of a famed folk music duo with her sister Anna, has died of sarcoma, a rare type of cancer, at the age of 63. She died Monday night at her home in Montreal.

Born in Montreal and raised in the mountains north of the city, Kate and Anna McGarrigle returned to Montreal to attend college, joining the city’s folk music scene and releasing their eponymous debut album in 1975. The McGarrigle sisters went on to release ten records under their own name, and contributed both their songs and their singing to countless other albums, including the Nonesuch releases Stumble into Grace and All I Intended to Be, from their friend Emmylou Harris.

Kate's final full-length release came in 2005 on the Nonesuch release The McGarrigle Christmas Hour, on which the sisters were joined by Harris, Kate’s children Martha Wainwright and Rufus Wainwright, and Anna’s daughter Lily Lanken.

"When inevitably I read today in the papers that my mother lost her battle with cancer last night," Rufus Wainwright said in a statement, "I am filled with an immense desire to add that this battle, though lost, was tremendously fruitful during these last three-and-a-half years of her life."

He went on to describe the joy she felt at celebrating major life events with her family and friends during the past few years, saying, "Yes, it was all too brief, but as I was saying to her sister Anna last night while sitting by her body after the struggle had ceased, there is never enough time, and she, my amazing mother with whom everyone fell in love, went out there and bloody did it."

Emmylou Harris called Kate "an extraordinary woman. Beautiful inside and out, smart, always curious, feisty yet warm and loving, and so brave till the end. Her musical gifts were exceeded only by those as a mother, a sister, and a friend." Said Harris: "I will miss that lovely voice, but most of all, I will miss her excellent company. Farewell, dear Kate."

In 2008, Kate established the Kate McGarrigle Fund in association with McGill University Health Centre, the Jewish General Hospital through the MUHC Foundation, the Cedars Cancer Institute, and Cancer Research UK in order to raise money and awareness for the fight against sarcoma. For more information and to make a donation in honor of Kate, please visit muhcfoundation.com/kate.