My hairdresser this morning had a first guess of Anna Nicole Smith. But, my mystery tough woman was Janis Lyn Joplin, who was raised in Port Arthur, Texas. She died in 1970 of a heroin overdose.
That the young woman took to drugs so readily would be no surprise considering the decades in which she was living, and the treatment she received from people. When she attended the University of Texas in Austin, the thoughtless redneck fraternity boys nominated Janis for The Ugliest Man on Campus Award. Even worse than that, she won. Now, if that wouldn’t send a woman looking for escape from reality, I can’t imagine what would.
Janis was never accepted in her home town during her lifetime, and that was always difficult for her. In 1988, the town that once ostracized her erected a statue in her memory. I had the opportunity to visit the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur in January. They have a very nice exhibition of her artwork, and the replica (pictured above)of the Porsche she drove.
Many people read, but only four tried to guess, and I appreciate their input. They were all right! Thanks for indulging me in my silliness. The players were:
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I love Janis Joplin’s voice and her music, and her tragic death at such a young age has always made me sad.
I didn’t know how terribly she was treated as an adolescent and a young adult. How horrible. What idiots to call such an amazing and talented woman “ugly” — the namecallers were the “ugly” ones.
You bet, those namecallers were ugly. And, I’m betting that many of them are hypocrites bragging that they went to school with her.
That’s what I thought I don’t know her what a pitty she couldn’t cope with her look. People can be so cruel ! And now that she is famous everybody probably pretends that he/she know her very well ! (and drove her on the way to her grave) It’s sometimes disgusting.
Isn’t it sad that we can be so cruel to another human being? And only after they prove their worth do we honor them. Particularly sad that she was dead before her town validated her.
Yep, we are cruel. And, strangely, it is probably the cruelty that she experienced that made her such a wonderful artist.~skt
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