📍Port Arthur, TX, USA
1943 – 1962“I was born in Port Arthur, Texas, in January 1943, an oil-refinery town on the Gulf Coast, near the Louisiana border, the eldest of three children of Seth Joplin, an engineer at the Texaco refinery, and Dorothy, who worked as a registrar at a business college. We went to the First Christian Church, where I sang in the choir, and I was a bright, creative girl who loved to read and paint. Around fourteen, everything changed. I gained weight and had bad acne, and I didn't fit in with the other kids at Thomas Jefferson High School; I was bullied, called names, and treated as an outcast, partly because I spoke up for racial integration. I found friends among the other misfits, and one of them had records by Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Lead Belly, and when I heard them, I knew I wanted to sing the blues. We drove across the border to the clubs in Louisiana, where the music was wild, and I started singing blues and folk songs with my friends. I painted too, and I dreamed of getting out of Port Arthur. I went to Lamar State College and the University of Texas in Austin, singing in the clubs, and in 1966 I moved to San Francisco and joined Big Brother and the Holding Company. At the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 I became a star, and I sang Piece of My Heart, Ball and Chain, Cry Baby and Me and Bobby McGee. Port Arthur remembers me with a display in the Museum of the Gulf Coast, including a replica of my painted Porsche, and an annual birthday bash.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today