Peggy Caserta, Janis Joplins's former lover has died at 84: When and how did Janis Joplin die?
Peggy Caserta’s death was announced by Nancy Clearly, her friend and publisher, who released her memoir entitled ‘I Ran Into Some Trouble’ in 2018.
Peggy Caserta was born on September 12, 1940 in New Orleans and went on to live in such places as Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. According to People magazine, “By the mid-1960s, Caserta, who was living openly as a lesbian in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury community, opened Mnasidika, one of the nation's first hippie clothing shops. During that time, she dressed the Grateful Dead and met Joplin, who was her neighbor.”
When she was interviewed by Vulture in 2018, she was asked by them about her first memoir, 'Going Down with Janis' which came out in 1973. She said: “I didn’t write that trash. I sold out for drug money, and I’ve lived in the shadow of it for 40-some-odd years. That book scandalized my family. My mother and father were devastated. I lost my friends. I was so embarrassed that I just dropped out. I’m not going to make excuses for using, because a drug addict really needs no excuse, but every time that I thought I could get clean or tried to get clean, I would think about that book, and all I’d want to do is numb out again.”
The Vulture interviewer also said: “You say you don’t believe Janis was gay.” In response to this, Peggy said:”I never saw Janis as a gay girl. She was straight. She was wild. I’m gay, and lived a gay lifestyle even then. It was obvious. I had a girlfriend, Kim, there on the scene all the time, but Janis was never going to do anything that her parents didn’t approve of, other than sing.”
Where did Peggy Caserta die?
According to Peggy’s friend and publisher Nancy Clearly, she told Deadline that she died of “natural causes” at her cabin on the Tillamook River on the Oregon Coast.
When did Janis Joplin die and what did she die of?
Janis Joplin died of an overdose at the age of 27 in 1970. She passed away on October 4, 1970 at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood. Jimi Hendrix had died only two weeks earlier. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Janis Joplin, she was considered one of the most successful and iconic rock performers of her era.