Love, Janis
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Porter, Robert Ury, 16, 18
Pound, Ezra, 144
Pratt, Wynn, 125, 128
Presley, Elvis, 64, 382
Pryor, Bodie, 381
Pryor, Jimmy, 254, 277, 364
Pryor, Roger, 34, 41, 82
Quicksilver Messenger Service, 180, 186, 210, 221–22, 226
Ragovoy, Jerry, 291, 337, 371
Rainey, Ma, 208
Ray Solis group, 99
Redding, Otis, 309
Rexroth, Kenneth, 95, 134–35
Richards, Dave, 290
Ritchie, Jean, 71
Ritter, Tex, 384
Rivers, Larry, 300
Rivers, Travis, 128, 173, 176
Robert, John, 72–73
Roberts, Billy, 138
Robinson, Smokey, 236
Robyn, Dorothy, 45
Rodgers, Jimmie, 118
Rodgers, Richard, 299
Roky and the 13th Floor Elevators, 171–72
Rolling Stones, 243, 265, 311
Rothchild, Paul, 195–97, 202, 208, 266–67, 277–78, 350–53, 368–70, 372–75
Rothschild, Edmund, 315–16
Rubinstein, Arthur, 30
St. John, Powell, Jr., 53, 111, 113, 115–16, 124, 130, 171
Schickel, Richard, 379
Sedgwick, Edie, 300
Shad, Bob, 202, 207, 214, 261
Sharpe, Pat, 112–14
Shaw, Robert, 171
Shelton, Gilbert, 107, 117, 123–26, 129, 140–41, 275–76
Shelton, Robert, 260
Sherman, Jacob, 14
Sherman, Phillip, 12–13
Shirley & Lee, 208
Sigmund and the Freudian Slips, 214
Simmons, Jimmy, 98
Simon, John, 268, 273
Simon, Paul, 236
Slick, Grace, 257, 263
Smith, Bessie, 90, 145–46, 158, 208, 211
Smith, Jack, 46–48, 65, 69, 78, 87, 91, 98, 100, 102–6, 123–24, 162, 164
Smothers, Tommy, 306
Somma, Robert, 315
South, Glenda, 358, 362
Spanky, 263
Spillane, Mickey, 70
Spock, Benjamin, 32–33
Spoelstra, Mark, 377
Stanley Brothers, 117
Stills, Stephen, 307
Stilwell, Arthur, 27
Stopher, Tommy, 87, 115, 130
Stopher, Wally, 87, 108, 128
Strauss, William, 20–21
Sullivan, Ed, 299–300
Sweet William, 339
Swinging Saints, 214
Taj Mahal, 195
Tate, Sharon, 312
Taylor, Chip, 291
Teele, Kit, 176–77
Teele, Margo, 176
Tennant, Randy, 54, 62, 92, 102
13th Floor Elevators, 171–72
Thomas, Dylan, 262
Thomas, Michael, 5
Thompson, Ken, 334
Thornton, Big Mama, 260
Thornton, Willie Mae, 72
Threadgill, Kenneth, 117–20, 129, 171, 287, 326, 345, 363
Till, John, 305, 330, 344, 370
Tiny Tim, 300
Todd, Fred, 276
Tolkien, J. R. R., 192
Tork, Peter, 257
Torn, Rip, 300, 374
Trocchi, Alexander, 95
Turner, Lana, 63
Tuttle, Lyle, 6, 337, 366
Uris, Leon, 70
Valens, Ritchie, 384
van Gogh, Vincent, 70, 87
Vickers, Miss, 66
Virginia Woolves, 214
Wade, Clyde, 79–80
Walker, T-Bone, 246
Wallace, Mike, 295
Waller Creek Boys, 113, 116–17
Warhol, Andy, 300, 313
Washington, George, 13
Waters, Muddy, 327
Watts, Alan, 183
Wauldron, Linda Gottfried, 137–38, 140–41, 143–46, 148–49, 154, 172, 177, 205, 211, 229, 281, 285–86
Wauldron, Malcolm, 149, 172, 211, 285
Wauldron, Sabrina, 211, 281, 285
Wein, George, 250
Wells, Glen, 385
Whyte, William, 134
Wiggins, Lanny, 113, 115–16
Wilde, Oscar, 231, 293
Williams, Andy, 307
Williams, Mason, 307
Williams, Roger, 12
Wilson, Al, 195
Wilson, Sloan, 134
Winchester, Jesse, 330
Winter, Edgar, 99, 384
Winter, Johnny, 99, 384
Wolfe, Tom, 304
Woodward, Dave, 305
ZZ Top, 385
PHOTOS SECTION
The Joplins—Our Paternal Grandfather
Benjamin Jopling, our great-great-grandfather. Benjamin brought the family from Virginia, through Alabama to East Texas, marrying four times and fathering twenty-two children. He helped build the fort at Fort Worth. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Charles Alexander Joplin, our great-grandfather was the sixteenth child of Benjamin and helped found the settlements around Lubbock, Texas. He was known as C.A., and called all of his seven sons by their initials as well. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
LEFT: C.A. and his bride, Margaret Elmira White, our great-grandparents. They proudly display all of the possessions that started them off in life in an area near Joplin, Texas. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
RIGHT: Seeb Winston (S.W.) Joplin—our grandfather—was the eldest of eleven children born to C.A. and Margaret Joplin; he managed a large cattle ranch near Tahoka, Texas, went on a cattle drive to Montana, ventured to Alaska, then returned to marry Florence Porter and live in Amarillo, Texas, managing the stockyards. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
The Porters—Our Paternal Grandmother
Robert Ury Porter, our great-grandfather, brought his family to Texas via flatboat on the Mississippi River and sailing ship to Velasco, Texas. From there they ventured by ox-drawn wagon to Central Texas, where they homesteaded land they called Porter’s Prairie. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Florence Elizabeth Porter, our grandmother, was born to Robert Porter and his second wife, Arminta Roberson Porter, when he was sixty-two years old. She was the Fourteenth of sixteen children. Later in life, she only learned to drive a car so she could get to cooking class, which she needed because she ran a boardinghouse. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Arminta Roberson Porter—our great-grandmother—and her daughters after Robert Porter died and the family moved to Georgetown, Texas. Florence is on the lower right. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Porter family reunion at Porter’s Prairie, at Robert Porter’s house—the first two-story frame house built in Burleson County, Texas. The picture was taken sometime before Robert’s death in 1899. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
The Easts—Our Maternal Grandfather
Our great-grandparents Ulysses Sampson Grant East and his wife, Anna Belle Bowman East, and their children, Violet, Cecil (our grandfather), Vern, and Floyd. The Easts settled Illinois in the early 1800s. It is rumored that Grant’s great-grandfather married into the Cherokee Nation. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
The Hansons—Our Maternal Grandmother
John Milton Hanson (our great-great-great-grandfather), who homesteaded the wilderness of Henry County, Iowa, and left his wife in charge of the farm while he sought their fortune in the California Gold Rush. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Four generations of Hansons. Henry Hanson (our great-great-grandfather) upper right, served as an orderly in a general’s headquarters in the Civil War. Henry’s son Herbert married Stella Mae Sherman. Their eldest daughter, Laura (our grandmother), is shown with two of her children, baby Gerald and Dorothy, the eldest. She was our mother. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Cecil and Laura East and their four children. Dorothy is standing in the center. The others, from the left, are Barbara, Mildred (Mimi), and Gerald. They lived in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Amarillo, Texas, where they eventually separated after Dorothy was married. (Courtesy of J
oplin family)
Dorothy and her sisters and brother on their favorite horse, Beauty, in Nebraska, shortly before her father lost the farm in the Depression. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Dorothy East sang lead in the annual social event sponsored by the Lion’s Club when she was a senior in high school. Dorothy is the first girl to the right of center. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Our father, Seth Ward Joplin, son of Seeb and Florence Joplin. This photo was taken when he first started work for Texaco, shortly before he married. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Dorothy East (our mother) was twenty-two years old when she worked at the Amarillo radio station and met her future husband, Seth. Her reputation as a “swinger” was made when she was madly trying to figure out why the station wasn’t broadcasting, and said, “I can’t get the damn thing to work,” only to discover that it was working and had broadcast her expletive to every house and farm in the area. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Janis, a few months old, and our mother, Dorothy, at their Port Arthur, Texas, home on Procter Street. (© Joplin family)
Janis and our parents on a family visit to Amarillo, Texas. This photo was taken shortly after Janis turned to them and said, “We are going home now. I’ll have to start being good.” (© Joplin family)
Studio portrait of Janis, about three, and our mother. Dorothy doted on her young daughter. (© Joplin family)
Janis, about six or seven, at the new family home on Lombardy Street. Dorothy made Janis many lovely dresses, such as this Easter outfit. (© Joplin family)
Aerial shot of the city of Port Arthur, Texas, in the 1940s, with Pleasure Island in the foreground. The large white building in the center is a dance hall. The roller coaster and midway are directly behind it in an area called Pleasure Pier. The intracoastal canal separates the island from the town. In the distance storage tanks for the refineries can be seen. (Courtesy of Artie Hebert)
Sitting in the backyard on the dense St. Augustine grass, Janis is holding her best friend. (© Joplin family)
Janis, about ten, in one of the dresses our mother made for her. (© Joplin family)
On a trip to Los Angeles to visit Dorothy’s family, Janis and I pose with our mother, dressed in matching outfits she made. (© Joplin family)
Janis adored our baby brother, Michael. He was like a living doll for her. (© Joplin family)
TOP: Janis (at left) liked to play dress-up with the neighbor girls. The house on Lombardy was built in a family neighborhood with lots of playmates of all ages. (© Joplin family)
MIDDLE: Seth and his children in the backyard, in front of the hedge he dug up and replanted from a cow pasture across the street. Janis was thirteen. (© Joplin family)
BOTTOM: Grandfather Seeb Joplin with his three grandchildren about 1957, on a visit to Port Arthur. Janis was about fourteen. (© Joplin family)
Janis in a school photo, probably in the ninth grade. (© Joplin family)
Janis standing in front of a pen-and-ink drawing she did during her summer volunteer job at the local library, drawing illustrations for the children’s section bulletin boards. A newspaper story and photo read, “Library Job Brings Out Teenager’s Versatility.” (© The Port Arthur News)
Janis (second from left) used her artistic talents in school pep rallies. Here she and her classmates are planning death for their upcoming football opponents. Her attire is noticeably different from the other girls’, with a shorter skirt and no bobby sox or loafers. Family friend Kristen Bowen is second from the right. (Courtesy of Kristen Bowen)
The summer after ninth grade, Janis (second from the left) joined the Port Arthur Little Theater. In this production, Sunday Costs Five Pesos, she played an ingenue. (Courtesy of Jim Langdon and Grant Lyons)
Janis’s yearbook picture for her junior year in high school. She often dressed in black, emulating Beat artists. She ran around with a group of guys who listened to folk music and jazz, read good literature, and discussed intellectual topics at length. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Grandfather Joplin visited in 1960 after his second marriage. This was Janis’s senior year in high school. She is wearing a royal blue two-piece outfit that she favored. (© Joplin family)
Studio portrait about 1960–61, when Janis was attending Lamar State College of Technology in nearby Beaumont, Texas, and Port Arthur Business College. (© Joplin family)
Janis tried living in the Los Angeles–Venice area the summer and fall of 1961. She initially went to live with our mother’s sisters. They are shown here, sitting on opposite sides of the table from their daughters. From the left are Jean Pitney, Mildred “Mimi” Krohn, Janis, Barbara Irwin, and Donna MacBride. (Courtesy of Donna MacBride)
Janis played around in California, posing as the ultimate beach-going sophisticate. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
The summer of 1962, Janis enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin. She majored in art but spent most of her time in the growing folk music scene. She learned to play autoharp and distinguished herself enough to be the subject of an article in The Summer Texan, the school newspaper, with the headline SHE DARES TO BE DIFFERENT. (© The Summer Texan; courtesy of Texas Student Publications)
At the University of Texas, Janis ran with a group of folk musicians and writers for the Ranger magazine. They often gathered at a group of apartments fondly called “the ghetto.” From the left, in Ted Klein’s ghetto apartment, are Ted Klein, Ray “Papa” Hansen, Gilbert Shelton, and Pat and Bill Helmer. (© Texas Ranger; courtesy of Texas Student Publications; from the collection of Ted Klein)
Wednesday evenings the group sang at the university-sponsored hootenanny at the Chuckwagon in the student union. Here Janis performs with Powell St. John and Lanny Wiggins. (© 1963 Cactus yearbook; courtesy of Texas Student Publications)
TOP: On Thursday evenings, Janis and her Austin gang often sang at Ken Threadgill’s bar, a converted gas station on the outskirts of town. (© 1980 Tom Hatch)
BOTTOM: Kenneth Threadgill got the first liquor license in Austin after Prohibition was repealed, and he began selling alcohol and bringing in local musicians. With his years of experience, he provided the knowledge and support that Janis needed. (© Burton Wilson)
Janis moved to San Francisco from Austin in January 1963. She worked at odd jobs and lived the life of a beatnik artist in search of herself. She began singing professionally in local clubs. She learned to play guitar in California, so she wouldn’t have to split the modest fees she earned singing with a musician to back her. (Courtesy of Michael Ochs Archives and the Joplin family)
Janis had a new twelve-string guitar and gave me her old six-string. On a 1964 visit home while driving cross-country, Janis taught me to play. Janis wore typical beatnik clothes: black turtlenecks and gold medallions with blue jeans and sandals. (© Joplin family)
Janis returned home in the spring of 1965, after a disastrous experience shooting methedrine in San Francisco. We spent girlish hours styling our hair and experimenting with makeup and clothes. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Before she became a singer, Janis turned her artistic talents to painting and drawing. In high school she drew this quick sketch of classmate and sophomore boyfriend Rooney Paul. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
I begged Janis to paint my portrait, expecting Janis to pose me like a Southern belle at the fireplace. Instead Janis painted what she saw, a bored eleven-year-old looking over her shoulder to see what her sister was doing. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
In college, Janis was especially taken with the angular portrait style of Modigliani. Here she adapted his approach in a picture that hung in the family dining room for years. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
During a year living at home in 1965–66, Janis often pulled back her most visible sign of power, her wild hair, and put it discreetly into a bun on top of her head. During this period she wore makeup, dressed conservatively, and warned her friends, “Watch your language,” and “Don’t drink too much.” (Courtesy of Joplin family)
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In the spring of 1966, Janis began performing publicly again, with the assistance of old friend Jim Langdon, who was then writing a column in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper. He got her a job May 5 at a blues festival, her first gig before a mixed-race audience. They loved her. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
Janis performed at the 11th Door, a folk club in Austin. Jim Langdon knew the owner, Bill Simonson, and he helped get her a few bookings. (Courtesy of Joplin family)
TOP: Janis often tried to share the new things she was experiencing with us back home, like using more psychedelic lettering in a birthday card.
BOTTOM: In 1964, after passing through Port Arthur on a drive from New York to San Francisco, Janis sent a postcard home to let us know that she had arrived safely.
Janis’s letters used various writing styles—printing, script, or more artistic designs. When words alone wouldn’t do, Janis added quick sketches that got her point across. Like her stage show, Janis’s letters conveyed her emotions.