cry baby

Had she lived, Janis would have turned 64 today. Can you imagine that? What would she be doing now? What would she have done? She'd probably be running a tattoo parlor in Brooklyn. Ha. Here's a few things you might not have known before.

- oldest of 3 children, has a younger brother, Michael and a sister Laura.

-before she died, founded a corporation call Fantality, Inc, which is a combination of two words: fantasy & reality. Michael and Laura manage Fantality and her legacy to this day.

-She came from a comfortable middle class home. Her father was a cannery worker and her mother was a registrar for a local business college.

-She had 2 tattoos. One an ornate bracelet on her left wrist and a small red heart over her heart.

- She joined many high school clubs and was a member of the Glee Club and The Future Teachers of America club.

-She was a prolific reader throughout her life. She studied philosophy and sociology at Lamar State College and once aspired to be a key punch operator. She dropped out.

-Before she was a singer, she painted. Often staying up late throughout the night to finish her paintings. Many of them hand now in the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur, Texas.

-She studied Art at the University of Texas in Austin. She played the auto harp and sang in the bars. While she was gaining some notoriety singing at Threadgill's, she was also voted "ugliest man on campus" by her fellow classmates. She once said, "They laughed me out of class, out of school and out of the state and I've been suffering ever since. It's enough to make you want to sing the blues."

Follow some links and see some photos..