Janette Carter, ‘Beloved Matriarch’, Passes Away
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Janette Carter. The ‘beloved matriarch’ of country music’s founding family The Carter Family passed away on January 22nd after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease and other complications. She was 82.
The trio of A.P., Sara, and A.P.’s sister-in-law Maybelle made up The Carter Family, a group that would define a musical genre and influence generations of musicians and songwriters. The daughter of A.P. and Sara Carter, Janette was the last surviving child of The Carter Family.
Ralph Peer discovered the group in 1927 after they responded to a newspaper ad in Bristol, Tennessee, a 30-mile full-day trek from their home in Hiltons, Virginia. The music created from those legendary Bristol sessions would not only become the foundation which peermusic was built upon, but also the foundation of Country music itself.
Keeping true to her father’s wish to have the legacy of their music carry on, Janette founded The Carter Fold in 1974. Held nearly every Saturday since then, the event continues to preserve the traditions of bluegrass and folk music with performances that draw 50,000 people each year. An annual two-day festival is held every first weekend in August -- the anniversary of Ralph Peer’s first sessions with The Carter Family.
Among the many accolades for her work with The Carter Fold, she received the Country Music Association’s Joe Talbot Award (only the second recipient of the award in CMA history), the National Endowment of the Art’s Bess Homax Award, and the 2005 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in behalf of The Carter Family. During the week of her Grammy honors, Janette made time to visit the peermusic Los Angeles offices (pictured above).
peermusic extends our deepest condolences to Janette’s family during this difficult time.
Pictured at the offices of peermusic Los Angeles (left to right): (back row) Marissa Lopez, Elias Andrade begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, Erin McGrath, Jonathan Kehl, Wil Savage, Kimberly Fuston (daughter of Lorrie Bennett), Rita Forrester (daughter of Janette Carter), and Kathy Spanberger (peermusic President & COO); (front row) unidentified cousin to the Carters, Janette Carter, and Lorrie Bennett.
Related links:
Carter Family Fold
Related stories:
WSMV-Nashville: Famed member of musical Carter family dies (Windows Media Video)
Kingsport Times News: Janette Carter dies at age 82
The Tennessean: Janette Carter of musical 'First Family' dies
The Bristol-Courier: Janette Carter Dies
