History along the Way: Stories beyond the Texas Roadside Markers

Chapter 6. Her Lonely Way Back Home

78 Her Lonely Way Back Home January 19, 2008, was a cold, drizzly day in Port Arthur, Texas. A large crowd gathered that morning in a Baptist church fellowship hall on 32nd Street and sat reverently listening to recordings of a couple of Janis Joplin songs—“Mercedes Benz” and “Me and Bobby McGee”—and many began singing along as they warmed to the familiar tunes from their past. It was a diverse crowd—children, old-timers, local politicians, curious neighbors, and visitors—some wearing leather motorcycle garb and the beads, tie-dyed clothing , and feather boas favored by Joplin, a local girl. It was not a typical gathering in a church fellowship hall, but then that somehow seemed appropriate. The occasion was the dedication of an Official Texas Historical Marker on what would have been Joplin’s sixty-fifth birthday. Few in attendance could picture heras a senior citizen. In their minds she would forever be in her twenties—the queen of rock and roll, flamboyantly performing on stages around the world, her wild hair, colorful costumes, and feather boas flying as she belted out song after song in front of cheering audiences. Those in attendance that day in Port Arthur, including the authors of this book, heard from Jefferson County Historical Commission officials and several local citizens who shared memories of their famous childhood friend. The event was pleasant, well planned, and orderly, and everyonewho spoke, it seemed, had good memories of their friend and neighbor.With the remarks and other formalities out of the way, the crowd slowly moved outside and crossed the street to the site of the marker, located in front of the home where Janis lived as a child. There, as local police blocked the road, the current owner of the house ceremoniously unveiled 6 her lOnely way Back hOMe 79 the marker, and the crowd erupted into applause as one dedicated fan appropriately yelled out, “Janis Joplin lives! Woo!”1 The event’s celebratory mood represented a marked contrast from the town’s attitude toward its most famous native daughter just a fewdecades earlier. Janis Joplin’s relationshipwith her hometown was complicated. By most accounts, she enjoyed a normal, happy early childhood in a middle-class family in the blue-collar refinery town, but her experiences as an outcast—some would say of her own making—in her high school years set the stage for rebellion and outrageous behavior that colored both her own memories and her legacy. As her fame in the 1960s hippie counterculture movement grew, she simultaneously wrote sentimental letters to her family and made disparaging remarks about her hometown to reporters covering her meteoric rise in the music business. Lyrics written by her friend, lover, and fellow musician Kris Kristofferson in 1971, a year after her death (although not written for her, and paraphrased here), convey a sense of the complex journey toward her evolving legacy in Port Arthur: “[She’s] a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction, takin’ every wrong direction on [her] lonely way back home.”2 Janis Joplin’s parents, Seth Joplin and Dorothy East, moved from Amarillo to the small Southeast Texas town of Port Arthur in 1935. Seth worked at a Texaco container plant, and Dorothy found employment in the credit department of a local Sears store. They married in 1936, and just over six years later, on January 19, 1943, Dorothy gave birth to their first child, Janis Lyn. A second daughter, Laura, was born in 1949, followed by a son, Michael, in 1953. The family lived in a small house on Procter Street until about 1947, when they moved to a larger residence on Lombardy Drive (now 32nd Street) in the Griffing Park neighborhood. “Kids were everywhere ,” Laura Joplin later recalled. “The streets were laid out like spokes on a wheel, and the hub was . . . Tyrrell Public School.”3 Childhood friend Monteel Copple remembered riding bicycles around the tree-lined neighborhood streets with Janis and other playmates. “We would always somehow meet up and ride around, and oftentimes go back to the schoolyard and play,” she said. “We 80 chaPTer 6 used to hang upside down on the monkey bars. We did not wear shorts—that was not heard of at the time—we all had dresses, and so we just would struggle to hold our dresses up to our knees while we were hanging upside down, and it would...