Posted on 01/23/2006 7:14:04 AM PST by Borges
KINGSPORT - The last of her generation, Carter Family matriarch Janette Carter, 82, died early Sunday morning at Holston Valley Medical Center after slipping into unconsciousness and being hospitalized on Tuesday.
Carter was the last surviving daughter of country music legend A.P. Carter, who was the founder and leader of the country music trio The Carter Family that began recording in 1927. With the death last March of Janette's brother Joe, Janette became the last surviving child of members of the original Carter Family group.
Janette Carter had been unconscious since Tuesday evening, but her struggles with health problems were ongoing for several years. She had endured a combination of chronic illnesses, several surgical procedures over the last several years, as well as Parkinson's disease.
Prior to being hospitalized Tuesday, she had been undergoing physical therapy in attempts to recover from a fall in her home on Christmas Day.
Family members reported Thursday that Janette had begun showing some signs of improvement, but she suffered a relapse overnight Friday and required emergency surgery Saturday. During her final 24 hours, she suffered two "code blue" emergencies and, although a team of physicians revived her after the first one, they were unable to bring her back after the second.
Funeral arrangements will be handled by the Scott County Funeral Home in Weber City. Janette's daughter Rita Forrester said specific funeral arrangements will be announced later.
Bill Hartley, executive director of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance in Bristol, said Sunday that the death of Janette Carter marks the end of an era and the end of a generation of musicians. He added, however, that Janette's efforts in helping create the Carter Family Fold have ensured that the music of her generation and her father's generation will live on forever.
"Janette was such a great person and a great musician, and part of that living legacy, and it's the end of an era in that she was the last of the children of the original Carter Family," Hartley said. "She was the last surviving child of A.P. and Sara, and I believe June was the last surviving child of Maybelle, so that whole generation is gone now. Of course the grandchildren are still around and will carry on the the music and what goes on at the Carter Fold.
"It's really remarkable how well Janette carried on her family's legacy by helping create the Carter Fold and what that has grown into from such humble beginnings. Thanks to the foundation she built with the Carter Fold, her family legacy lives on."
Janette's father, A.P. Carter, died in 1960, and Janette dedicated her life after that point to obeying her father's last wishes. Those wishes were for the preservation not only of Carter Family music but also the folk and country music of the Appalachians.
With that, Janette had planted the seed for what would become the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Va., which has been enjoyed by thousands every year since 1974 thanks to country music performances at the site of the general store A.P. Carter operated in the final years of his life.
Those performances grew over the years, becoming the centerpiece of the not-for-profit Carter Family Memorial Music Center Inc. The Saturday night performances have become the region's top visitor attraction.
Janette's lifetime of hard work brought her many awards and phenomenal national and international recognition. The latest honor, and among the most significant, occurred in September when she was presented the Bess Lomax Hawes award from the National Endowment for the Arts in recognition of her lifelong efforts in the preservation and performance of Appalachian music.
While the recognition was well deserved, Hartley said there was more to Janette Carter than music and awards.
"Just to know her, she was such a wonderful person with her sense of faith and determination," Hartley said. "One day we were talking about how she started the fold, and she said, ‘People thought I was crazy when I did that.' Look at what she's done and what she's been through, good times and bad. I know here lately her brother Joe passed away and her son passed away in this last year, and she's had health problems.
"But the thing about Janette was she always had a smile, she was always a very caring person and was always very concerned about other people and her community."
Janette Carter's parents, A.P. and Sara, and her Aunt Maybelle Carter produced a musical legacy regarded as pivotal in the establishment of the country music industry and have been in the Country Music Hall of Fame since 1970.
As for the future of the Carter Fold, Rita Forrester said in a written statement Sunday that her mother's objectives, policies, goals and ambitions for the Carter Family Fold will continue as before.
Hartley said that the foundation laid down by the previous two generations of Carters has ensured the survival of the Carter Family Fold for many generations to come.
"It's a sad day, but it's good to know what she created will be carried on," Hartley said.
God bless her!
Prepare me, my savior, prepare me, I pray
To cross o'er this terrible dark stream
O lead me and guide me and be near my side
It'll be nothing more than a dream
Only a dream, only a dream
Of glory beyond the dark stream
How peaceful the slumber, how happy the waking
For death is only a dream
I know that The Carter Family contributed much to the great success of American folk music in the 20th century, though I am more familiar with the Stoneman family.
Thank God for people like Janette who have helped to preserve those traditions.
Old time clawhammer banjo player here...
Losing the Carter's is a sad thing for those who love the simple, clean, and God-fearing music from the mountains that they helped preserve.
She will be missed!
The Carters' music is assume, even to this day. It hard to think of any one that had a bigger influence to American music, even W.C. Handy or Elvis. The infant electronics industry would credit them for selling a lot of radio sets.
After A.P. and Sara had an ugly separation, 'Mother' Maybelle [June Carter Cash's mom] kept the Carter family goin'!
So sad but what a legacy the Carter family has left us with!
Farewell Wildwood Flower. RIP Janette Carter.
Songs of the Carter Family
More from Songs of the Carter Family
Lonesome Valley
Everybody's got to walk this lonesome valley
We've got to walk it by ourselves
There's nobody here can walk it for us
We've got to walk it by ourselves
My father's got to walk this lonesome valley
He's got to walk it by his self
There's nobody here can walk it for him
He's got to walk it by his self
My mother's got to walk this lonesome valley
Oh sinners got to walk this lonesome valley
Everybody's got to walk this lonesome valley
Recorded 11/24/30 Memphis, Tn
5/8/35 New York, NY (2)
6/10/36 New York, NY
http://www.icdc.com/~fmoore/carterfamily/lonesome_valley.htm
The circle is again unbroken.
R.I.P.
Good comment, but I think that calls for the lyrics:
I was standing by my window
on one cold and cloudy day
when I saw that hearse come rolling
for to carry my mother away
Lord I told that undertaker
undertaker please drive slow
for this body you are hauling
Lord, I hate to see her go
I will follow close behind her
try to hold up and be brave
but I could not hide my sorrow
when they laid her in her grave
Will the circle be unbroken
Bye and Bye Lord Bye and Bye
There's a better Home Awaiting
in the sky Lord in the sky
RIP
Janette Carter has gone home.
Wild Wood flower ping....
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