Janis Martin, The Female Elvis

[RedHotRidinHood]

I am very sad today-this woman ROCKS. She was one of the original rockabilly artists along with Wanda Jackson and Lorrie Collins. This really sucks.

This from MySpace:

To all concerned,
It saddens my heart to write and tell you all of this terrible news that I just received.
Rockabilly artist, Janis Martin has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and it has spread all over her body.
Her husband Wayne Whitt has told me that she is napping most of the day in a hospital bed at her home in Danville, VA. She will soon go and take a temporary residence in Raleigh for a round of radiation treatments to try and reduce the size of the tumors behind her lungs, shoulder and leg. Janis had been suffering from severe headaches over the past several months so she found it necessary to cancel her recent booking at the Americana Festival in England. The headaches turned out to be stress related from all the grief she’s had to endure from losing her son Kevin who passed away in January of this year. Recently when a large tumor appeared on her shoulder, Janis and Wayne headed back to the doctors for tests. The tests revealed that she has a very aggressive type of cancer and is spreading all over her body. I can’t even believe that I’m writing this, it is so hard to accept that this amazing person and dear friend is going through such an intense sickness at a time in her life when she was retired from her day job and finally ready to start performing again. I hope that everyone who knows her and has been touched by her unique talent for performing and her gifted voice as a rock n roll, blues and country singer will keep Janis and her family in your prayers. She has given so much to the world of music and to her fans both here in the US and in Europe and the rest of the world. To read further about her career, you can google her name or click on this link: http://www.myspace.com/femaleelvis
http://www.history-of-rock.com/janis_martin.htm

Cards can be sent to her home at this address:

Janis Martin and Wayne Whitt
2217 Mount View Rd.
Danville, VA 24540

As some of you know, Janis recently agreed to let me produce with Bobby Trimble a brand new CD of 10 rock n roll songs of her choice. Backed by an amazing line up of musicians, including Bobby, from Austin Texas, we all gathered at a friends home studio in Blanco, Texas and in 3 days finished a body of work that she is very proud and excited about as well as a feeling of great accomplishment. Only three months prior to recording in Texas she had to endure the loss of her son who passed away in January from a brain aneurism. With all her heart and soul she sang with as much energy and intensity as she ever had. We all feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to share many great moments with such an amazing artist and beautiful person. The original female rock n roll artist, and as many of you have seen from her recent concert performances over seas and in the US, just never stopped rockin’! We hope to get this released as soon as possible so everyone can enjoy what will be Janis Martin’s last recordings.

Rosie Flores
Austin, Texas
August 27, 2007

 

[BeBopBaby]

What a shame, she is an amazing talent. Getting to see Janis perform at Viva Las Vegas years ago was the highlight of the weekend.

 

[KittyT]

Wow, that's terrible. The contributions she has made to music are enormous.

 

[RIOT]

RIP Janis Martin

Another loss for the Rockabilly world.

You will truly be missed..

 

[fernande]

I had been following her condition on myspace and am sad to see that today she died. She really had such an amazing voice and style- and such a presence.
I am just glad that she didn't suffer too long, I've had many a love one afflicted with cancer- and once it goes all over the body- it can be terribly painful.

Rip Janis.

 

[RIOT]

REPOST:

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It Saddens us to report and has crossed the wires already that Janis Martin passed away earlier today at the age of 67. Rock-it Radio reported in it's newsletter last Friday that Janis was diagnosed with Terminal Cancer and sleeping and resting most of the time in a hospital bed at her home.
Art Adams phoned Rockabilly and Rock-it Radio associate Sheree Homer earlier this evening with the sad news that she had passed away.
Janis Martin was a unique figure in the history of rockabilly -- there were other women working in that male-dominated field, but Janis Martin was the one dubbed "The Female Elvis Presley" by RCA, reportedly with the approval of Col. Tom Parker.

Janis Martin was born in Sutherlin, Virginia March 27 1940. With a stage mother on one side and a father and uncle who were amateur musicians on the other, Martin was practically predestined for a performing career. She was playing and singing before age five. By six, she'd mastered chords on her junior-sized guitar and was singing in a style influenced by Eddy Arnold and Hank Williams. Martin became a fixture in local talent contests and won all of them. Martin was playing and singing on the WDVA Barndance out of Virginia by age 11. By her mid-teens, she'd appeared alongside the likes of Ernest Tubb, the Carter Family, Sonny James, and Jean Shepard.

From the Barndance, she traveled with Glen Thompson's band for two years and then went on the road with Jim Eanes, a former Starday recording artist. In 1953, she appeared at a Tobacco Festival with Ernest Tubb and Sunshine Sue. As a result of this appearance, Janis was invited to become a regular member of the Old Dominion Barndance in Richmond, Virginia third largest in the nation, ranking only behind the Grand Old Opry and the Wheeling, West Virginia Barndance.

Her amazing amount of experience for one so young helped push her into rock & roll. It turned out that Martin had tired of country music by her mid-teens, especially the slow ballads, having been doing them for a decade. The timing was perfect, for she discovered rhythm & blues in the mid-1950s, and was soon bringing that material into her own song lists.

Rock-it Radio plans on doing a special tribute broadcast of her music within the week. We will miss Janis greatly and we are greatful of the music and legacy she had left in the Rockabilly realm.

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Ms "Drugstore Rock n' Roll" Martin will truly be missed. Thanks for all those great music! RIP