Janette Carter, at 82 the last surviving member of the famous Carter Family, has died.

Carter, 82, the founder of the Carter Family Fold and Memorial Music Center, succumbed to complications from an abdominal infection Sunday at Holston Valley Medical Center, her daughter said Monday.

A lone white rose with a love note attached was positioned by a person who paid their respects Monday out in front of the Fold, a small token to a woman whose stature and presence among those who still cling to the simple times of yesteryear and the old-time mountain music was towering beyond measure.

Speaking to Robert Hilburn a couple of years ago, Dylan, while deprecating his own melodic skills, said “My songs are either based on old Protestant hymns or Carter family songs or variations of the blues form.”

From News Channel Five in Nashville, Tennessee:

Sullivan County
The last surviving child of country music’s founding Carter Family has died in East Tennessee. Janette Carter died Sunday in Kingsport. Carter was the daughter of A.P. and Sara Carter. Her parents and her father’s sister-in-law, Maybelle Carter formed the now-famous singing trio. Janette Carter dedicated her life to preserving not only the Carter Family music, but the music of Appalachia.

From the Kingsport Times-News, this recollection from someone who attended shows lately at the Carter Fold that Janette Carter founded:

I was last there Dec. 10 for the McLain Family show. I was concerned because Janette mostly sat in her chair at the back of the stage that night.

I’ve always loved her introductions, when she would warn, “We don’t allow no e-lectrified instruments. And no dancing to the hymns.” I was always amused by that later admonition, indicating as it did that some people had tried to dance to the hymns.

Thirty years ago, Janette took an old country store, her daddy’s, and true to his last wishes, kept the spirit of Saturday night music get-togethers alive by turning that old building into a music mecca.

The get-togethers outgrew the store, so Janette built the Fold and filled it with music and love.

I enjoyed going just to hear Janette emcee and her brother Joe do his animal impressions. Most of all, I enjoyed the dancing. Watching the folks file down the aisles to the dance floor in front of the stage and then bust out in buck dancing made me regret that I wasted my youth learning to Twist.

Janette died earlier this week, and while the show will go on, the world of music will be a lesser place.

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