Thursday, August 30, 2007

Prayer request

My old friend Steve Harvey forwards a message from Rosie Flores requesting prayer for Janis Martin, a singer, songwriter, and guitarist who made headlines in the late 1950s as the "Female Elvis."

Flores writes in a blog entry on Martin's MySpace page (which includes recordings of some of her best-known songs):

Rockabilly artist, Janis Martin has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and it has spread all over her body.
Her husband Wayne Whitt has told me that she is napping most of the day in a hospital bed at her home in Danville, VA. She will soon go and take a temporary residence in Raleigh for a round of radiation treatments to try and reduce the size of the tumors behind her lungs, shoulder and leg. Janis had been suffering from severe headaches over the past several months so she found it necessary to cancel her recent booking at the Americana Festival in England. The headaches turned out to be stress related from all the grief she's had to endure from losing her son Kevin who passed away in January of this year. Recently when a large tumor appeared on her shoulder, Janis and Wayne headed back to the doctors for tests. The tests revealed that she has a very aggressive type of cancer and is spreading all over her body. I can't even believe that I'm writing this, it is so hard to accept that this amazing person and dear friend is going through such an intense sickness at a time in her life when she was retired from her day job and finally ready to start performing again. I hope that everyone who knows her and has been touched by her unique talent for performing and her gifted voice as a rock n roll, blues and country singer will keep Janis and her family in your prayers. She has given so much to the world of music and to her fans both here in the US and in Europe and the rest of the world.
The blog entry includes an address to send cards and flowers to Martin.

Flores goes on to note that the 67-year-old Martin "just never stopped rockin'," and she's not kidding. Watch Martin wail just two years ago in Green Bay, Wisconsin: