“Now I can listen to her songs with joy, instead of crying.” “Writing the book was a turning point for me in that I moved past the grief and came to a broader and deeper appreciation of Janis,” Laura said. The writing also helped her resolve the grief over her sister’s death in October 1970. decided to write the book to give a “fuller and more balanced view” of Janis than other biographies presented. in education from Prescott College in Prescott, Ariz. People in the 1990’s are searching for that kind of connection after the materialism of the 80’s.” “She believed that no matter who you are – race, dress, pimply face, whatever – everybody deserves equal respect and love. “There is a renewed interest now in that time and in Janis… “Janis is an image of the psychedelic music, drugs, emotional freedom of the 60’s,” said Laura, sitting at the dining room table in her comfortable Denver home, where she lives with her husband and young daughter. Now Laura Joplin, six years younger than Janis, has written a biography, “Love, Janis” (Villard, $22.50), that puts the hometown girl Janis and the Janis who personified the rebellious 1960’s on the same coin. Janis Joplin was a rock ‘n’ roll star, a brassy blues mama who died of a heroin overdose in 1970 at age 27. When she was away from home, Janis wrote caring letters to her mother. She and her younger sister, Laura, spent hours in front of a mirror trying on clothes and doing each other’s hair.

She wore her hair in a bouffant during one of her brief college stints, when she studied sociology and art. She read Time magazine every week because her father told her it was a good way to stay in touch with society.

Laura joplin