2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)

Subject: Obit: Laura Martin
From: Felipa
Date: 10 Jun 24 - 05:38 PM

from Lorna Fossum via Joe Offer:
" here is the text of the message that Alexa Sunshine posted to the Port Townsend Community Facebook page:

"Port Townsend family, I just got the news that Laura Martin (singing, folk dancing extraordinaire) passed away in her garden last night, after a night of singing and dancing with community. Oh my goodness. To all of us who loved this long-time staple of our community, my condolences."

I feel like I know Laura because we "met" most weeks on the Monday zoom Mudcat singing circle. She'll be greatly missed.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/t7mekdCisxaL7dj9/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: GUEST,Joan Frankel - from Facebook
Date: 10 Jun 24 - 08:15 PM

I just got through reading 200+ tributes & still can't believe this is real. Please make it not so.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Jun 24 - 10:23 PM

Owing to dementia I did not make the connection with her name. She was kind to me.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jun 24 - 07:45 PM

Ash Devine and Laura Martin sing “Music of Healing” by Tommy Sands. In Port Townsend, WA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=-so_gCAq4EA

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: pattyClink
Date: 11 Jun 24 - 08:25 PM

Thank you Joe, great piece. What a kind lady, with such a heart.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: Amergin
Date: 12 Jun 24 - 02:24 AM

Oh man...I remember her from the campouts Mary Garvey organised many years ago on the coast. She was a very nice person. I'm sorry to hear she's gone.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: GUEST,Pushkara Sally Ashford
Date: 13 Jun 24 - 04:35 PM

She shall have music wherever she goes!
Our ever-present, always singing (ever-munching )sweetheart, Laura Martin, being remembered by her PT community and beyond. She and I go back to the 1970's Seattle Folklore Society and early days of NW Folklife Festival.

Here she is at a few of our more recent SingPeace! Pilgrimage for Peace & Global Harmony events:

SingPeace! gypsy wagon inaugural in PT: Nov. 2009
https://singpeacepilgrimage.ning.com/photo/singpeace-gathers-in-71

NW Folklife 2010 in Seattle
https://singpeacepilgrimage.ning.com/photo/folklife-friday-429
https://singpeacepilgrimage.ning.com/photo/folklife-friday-234

"For Pete's Sake!" 2014 on Whidbey Island (Facebook photos)
We did an entire video interview with Laura prior to this 8 hour Pete Seeger tribute. Due to "technical problems," we lost this and most of the tapes from this series. But here is Laura singing at the event.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10152312719434378&set=a.10152312881074378
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10152312824139378&set=a.10152312881074378

Love you, Laura dear!

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 24 - 06:16 PM

Sally, I can't get the Facebook pages to link (to turn them into hot links). It might have to do with the privacy settings on the account you're sharing from.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: GUEST,Guest Joan F
Date: 14 Jun 24 - 11:31 AM

I can't get those links open either.

I had to join the Port Townsend Facebook group in order to add to the group-remembrance of Laura Joe posted, & now am being innundated by Facebook articles about events & lost pets (& beautious scenery) of Port Townsend, something I can't help thinking Laura would be laughing with, not at me about.

Go there for another long thread (I don't think you have to join to read, just to post) on Laura being collected by someone writing a newspaper article.

There's a clip of Laura accompanying a singer on choruses there.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 16 Jun 24 - 06:28 AM

Very sad news, Monday nights will not be the same. it is some consolation that Laura lived out her life right to the end.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 18 Jun 24 - 10:30 AM

I agree with you SPB-Cooperator and many other stalwarts of the Monday night Mudcat sessions. These have been running every Monday for a long time and as often as not, Laura would be there singing, listening and commenting on the songs. Not to be seen as part of the furniture, but as a valuable member of the team. She also had the gift of sharing some wonderful songs with us, many that I, certainly, hadn't heard before she sung them to us. Especially so with T. R. Richie's song, "Somewhere to Begin" that resonated with all of us. Goodbye Laura. It was good to be with you "virtually" every Monday. Rest in peace.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: GUEST,E Blake
Date: 18 Jun 24 - 08:31 PM

It's still hard to believe she's gone. When walking alone, her laugh seems so near, her voice in song and ideas a bit off center. My favorite times were working in her yard and singing at Songlines. I know she is still reverberating in the ether. Music alone shall live.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 19 Jun 24 - 04:01 PM

I still can't believe Laura won't drop in to our Mudcat Monday zoom gathering each week... Everything you write is so very true, Pete. Rest - and sing and dance - in peace, Laura.

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: GerryM
Date: 25 Jun 24 - 12:36 AM

The Recovery Cafe is holding two events in honor of Laura Martin, who died in Port Townsend on June 6. An open mic including family members will take place on Friday, June 21, followed by a celebration of life on June 28, where the public is invited to share poetry, songs, and stories in Laura's memory. Both events occur from 6 pm to 8 pm at 939 Kearney St. in Port Townsend.

The Port Townsend Farmers Market will host a musical tribute to Laura from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm on Saturday, June 29. And a Quaker Memorial Meeting for Worship will be held at 11 am on Saturday, August 17 at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave. in Port Townsend.

[Copied from https://www.ptleader.com/stories/memorial-announcement,170831]

Subject: RE: 2024 Obit:Laura Martin (Port Townsend, Washington)
From: GerryM
Date: 25 Jun 24 - 12:41 AM

Obituary at https://www.ptleader.com/stories/the-bard-of-port-townsend,170730?

Posted Wednesday, June 19, 2024 12:00 am

First came an email, next a voicemail, then more email, including forwards from other people who work at The Leader: Laura Martin, long- time resident of Port Townsend, had passed away.

It was the kind of outreach that more generally follows a muckety muck, perhaps a city official or the CEO of a top employer — someone who played a role that had a big impact on the community.

The role Laura C. Martin, 73, played was herself, a talented, eccentric character who saw boundaries as blurry, if she saw them at all. It was the kind of outreach that says as much about Port Townsend as it does about Martin, who had lived here 42 years when she died June 6.

Martin was best known as a singer, dancer and poet — some said a bard — who favored musical and creative happenings. In Celtic tradition, a bard was a minstrel poet who recited epic poetry and verse sometimes with a harp or other instrument. Martin had a great singing voice and gave recitations with a confidence that demanded attention. “She knew more songs and harmonies than anyone I’ve ever known,” said Silvia Platt, a friend of 34 years. “She was upbeat and happy, in a guileless sort of way.”

Martin regularly attended open mic nights and led regular song circles at the Recovery Cafe. But then, Martin was everywhere, from social groups to events connected to the city government to parties where, in some cases, she hadn’t technically been invited. She was also friendly and kind. Social media was full of examples of her doing things like giving someone a classical guitar and occasionally allowing people in need to stay at her house.   

Martin was one of four children raised by a professor and homemaker, Robert Martin and the former Roberta Pruitt, in Portland. Robert Martin was a physics professor at Lewis & Clark University from 1962 to 1985, and before that taught at Reed College. Perhaps more importantly, in terms of Laura’s formative years, the Martins were members of the Religious Society of Friends, also called Quakers. The faith is known for its lack of hierarchy, a belief that all have access to God, and a deep commitment to nonviolence. Robert Martin, a conscientious objector during World War II, did his service in North Dakota by working on a land reclamation project. The Martins were also a musical family. Robert Martin, a tenor, performed in local choral groups and in theatrical performances.

Laura Martin moved to a house on Calhoun Street in Port Townsend in 1982, where she had lived ever since.

By all accounts, June 6 started as a typical day. Martin went to Irondale where there was music, and someone gave her a ride back to her home on Calhoun Street in Port Townsend. At some point she tried to get to her car. A neighbor found her nearby the vehicle in the morning. An ambulance was called, and the crew did what they could, but Martin’s life had come to an end.

Martin was recalled on social media for creativity and persona, including references to “Glinda the good witch on a bicycle,” a favored mode of transportation as well as a reference to the kinder of the two witches in “The Wizard of Oz.” She also shared a single trait with Count Dracula, because she could not stand garlic. Cooks welcoming Martin knew to omit it from her portions.

Martin projected a belief that she belonged wherever she was, and sometimes that meant attending the food spreads at parties where she wasn’t on the guest list. “It could irritate people, but no one stopped her,” said neighbor Brett Nunn.

The first time Nunn met Martin, she was in his kitchen. He and wife Becky Nunn had been in the back of their new house ripping up carpet, and hadn’t heard her come in. Martin was going through the refrigerator, perhaps as a friend of the previous owner, who wasn’t present but hadn’t fully vacated. Martin asked, did they have any salt and pepper?

Two events will be held at the Recovery Cafe, an open mic on Friday, June 21, and a celebration of life on June 28, both from 6-8 p.m. The Port Townsend Farmers Market plans an open-mic tribute to Laura from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 28. There will be performances, including by Balfolk Dance Ensemble, and anyone who wants to be added to the song circle can write [e-mail]. A Quaker Memorial Meeting for Worship followed by a singing circle and potluck refreshments will be held for Laura at 11 am on Aug. 17 at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

— Meredith Jordan, editor