A tribute to Laura Martin
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Laura on a stroll (photo by Yvonne Degrasse Craig) [/caption]
Laura Martin was everywhere. There were the usual places, like the Farmers Market and Concerts on the Dock. She also turned up at smaller gatherings, especially when they had anything to do with music or dancing.
Laura, 73, died on Friday, June 7, after a night filled with song, stories, and dance. A neighbor discovered her body that morning, at which time she could not be revived.
There were two major community events in the days after her death, Pride Day and the Race to Alaska kickoff. While hundreds of people were present, locals sensed something missing as Laura wasn’t there.
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Laura at the Farmers Market (photo by Amanda Milholland) [/caption]
Recovery Cafe manager Brian Richardson said that Laura led her regular song circle on Wednesday afternoon, then approached him with an invitation.
“We were closing at 4:00, and she says, ‘Brian, pop up concert at Irondale Beach tonight, 6:00, on a secret list.’ So I took the family down there, and there she was. Laura was doing her thing, dancing, in her billowy dresses like she always does. I'll cherish that memory for a long time.”
“I was with her the night before she died,” said Cindi Alvarez, a long-time friend, “She was in pain and wasn’t feeling her best. She was anticipating some surgery and was really, really apprehensive about that.”
After Danny Milholland heard about Laura’s death he sent me a free-associating voice-memo.. .
“I raise my heart. I raise my glass to Laura Martin. A kind woman. A humble woman. A wild woman. Hilarious. A great, a great sense of humor and sense of things. Some of us have maybe cracked a joke or two here or there about Laura and her ways, her ways of being. It was never out of anger or dislike. It was always honoring who she is, who she was. And she will live on.”
I posted notices on three Facebook pages: Port Townsend Life, Port Townsend Community, and my own news feed. I asked for remembrances about Laura along with biographical details (who she was, and how she got here) but also anecdotes about her interactions with people and her philosophy of life.
The response, as expected, was overwhelming. I estimate that there were more than 100 comments and a couple hundred more reactions.
I also interviewed a dozen or so of her friends and acquaintances at length. There was a lot of repetition, which allowed me to draw certain conclusions.
She appeared everywhere, so some wondered if she had a clone or a twin. She loved storytelling, and music, and knew thousands of folk songs by heart. She spoke to everyone as if they were her friends, which they usually became.
Laura was born December 2, 1950, in Ann Arbor, Michigan where her father, Robert Martin, was a teaching fellow and research assistant at the University of Michigan.
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Robert Martin in the classroom (photo curtesy of Lewis and Clark College) [/caption]
Robert Martin served as a conscientious objector during World War II. He earned his degree in theoretical physics in Michigan, subsequently teaching at Portland’s Reed and Lewis and Clark Colleges until his retirement in 1985. He died in 2014.
Her friend Andrea Blair, who attended Lewis and Clark but did not know Laura at the time, said she shared stories of growing up on campus - the intellectual conversations she was regularly a part of, hiking the undeveloped forest around the campus, and attending the musical theater performances. She would walk around the college campus through hundreds of acres of undeveloped forest and ravines. And she would walk around campus barefoot.
Laura wore sandals year-round. She didn’t wear many warm clothes, even in winter. “She always ran hot,” said her friend Denise Joy. And she had her own fashion sense, according to JES Schumacher.
“Laura favored wearing flip-flops year-round and she also often wore baby doll dresses, loose fitting with gently ruffled layers. She enjoyed mixing floral patterns of garments. For some reason, she grew away from wearing her woven scarves and instead had a very clever way of wrapping her head in a sweater with the arms making a scarf around her neck.”
While many people feel that she’s been here forever. One friend recalled that Laura first came to Port Townsend from Eugene, OR for a Wooden Boat Festival in the mid-1970s. The town didn’t have everything she liked, but enough cool aspects that she wanted to live here. She didn’t move here right away. It took her a while. She zeroed in on an empty corner house in Uptown. The owner didn’t want to sell but Laura persisted, asking every year until they relented.
In 1981, she purchased the house and a large lot for $29,000. They are now assessed at $431,000.
She was very clever with money, the friend said, and sold her house in Eugene to cover the new property’s down payment.
“She had a purpose for all that stuff that she had all over her property that's why it was hard to help her,” said Kellie Nyby. “Most people would just get a dumpster and throw it all in, but she had a reason for everything. I walked by her yard the other day and thought ‘she doesn’t have to deal with all this anymore.”
Laura’s friends are holding a clean-up event this weekend, June 21-22. To pitch in, call 917-902-4617.
Laura was always asking for rides, sometimes hopping into cars uninvited. Many people just rolled with it.
“It was an adventure going with her on those trips because she always made it so that she was like tapping into other things she had going on,” Nyby said. “Like a friend who she had to return a bowl to or where she had to pick up their suitcase or, you know, she had more on her agenda than just what she and I had agreed upon, but that's how Laura worked.”
“I heard someone when they learned that she died, saying, ‘Oh, Laura, she could really irritate me, but I loved her,’” Richardson, the Recovery Cafe manager, said “But sometimes the people that we find the most challenging teach us the lessons that we need to know. I think Laura taught us how to be patient, how to be compassionate.”
You never knew what was going to come out of her mouth. Sonny Flores saw her pushing her car one day and stopped to help. Laura said she was just saving gas, then drove away. Nah Ma recalled that Laura would often take her desk phone to the Food Co-op, plugging into a spare jack to make some calls. The Co-op, like everything else in this town, has changed.
“She talked a lot about hierarchy and non-hierarchical structures such as a circle where each person contributes, rather than one person leading everyone, said Aleta Greenway, one of her closest friends. “This might have had to do with her Quaker background, where there is no minister. She also believed that non-hierarchical structures allowed people to shine in their own ways and contribute. This is kind of a spiritual belief that each person has a spark of life- but most people think they are unworthy, unloveable, so they don't contribute.”
Some tributes have already occurred, such as The Unexpected Brass Band’s rendition of ”I’ll Fly Away” at the beginning of this year’s Race to Alaska. Several more will follow.
*The Recovery Cafe, of which Laura was a member, will honor her at two events: an open mic on Friday, June 21, that will be attended by her family, and a Celebration of Life on Friday, June 28. Both take place from 6 pm to 8 pm at 939 Kearney St. in Port Townsend.
* The Port Townsend Farmers Market plans a tribute on Saturday, June 28, during the music period, from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm. Organizer Matt Sircely said that several of Laura’s favorite acts, such as the Balfolk Dance Ensemble, are scheduled to be performed. The event will operate like an open mic. Laura’s friends are already trading songs and lyrics for the event. For information or to be added to the list, write music@jcfmarkets.org.
* A Quaker Memorial Meeting for Worship will be held for Laura at 11 am on Saturday, August 17, 2024, at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Avenue, Port Townsend. A singing circle and potluck refreshments will follow the worship.
* Laura’s family is hoping to have a larger event that weekend. Details are pending.
Which is to say, the celebration of Laura Martin’s life won’t be linear.
My thanks go to everyone who participated, with apologies to those who were not included. The tributes continue to trickle in. They will remain online. You are also encouraged to add your recollections below.
