My Jimi Hendrix Story--and What is With That Beehive???

My family is so tired of hearing my Jimi Hendrix story, I hesitate to mention it here. That's me in the picture above, the one with that amazing beehive hairstyle. What was I thinking? But then it was the late '60's. I'm sure I thought it looked good on me. See the girl kneeling in the middle of the front row, the one in the green dress? That's Janie Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix' stepsister. What you see here is my Sunday School class of second grade girls at my family's Seattle church, Dunlap Baptist. This is the church where I was raised and baptized and where our children were dedicated. While most of my service at the church centered around music, I adored teaching these girls. I had a special relationship with Janie, and I was not in the least fazed by her familial relationship to her insanely famous brother.

A year after this picture was taken, Jimi Hendrix died from a drug overdose, sending shock waves throughout the music world. Perhaps more shocking was the fact that Jimi Hendrix' funeral was held at MY CHURCH! It's not that Jimi ever stepped foot in the church, and I'm not even sure his father, Al Hendrix, did either. But every Sunday Al brought Janie to Sunday School, and every Sunday I taught her. My niece was in the class too (in the other green dress), so I did a lot of extra things with the girls, and that's how I formed a bond with Janie. That was solidified when I was with Janie as she asked Jesus in to her heart.

My children were never impressed with the fact that Jimi's funeral was at Dunlap. It meant little to them that I played the piano at church on a Sunday, and four days later Miles Davis' hands were playing that same piano at Jimi's funeral. They had little interest in my retelling of watching the national news that evening and seeing film from outside my family church as music celebrity after music celebrity disembarked from limos and went in the church for the funeral of a sensational world-renowned guitarist. They weren't as disgusted as I was when I paged through Miles Davis' autobiography and discovered how horribly he trashed my pastor, the 'white' pastor who had no right to talk about a 'black' superstar.

This went on for years, and then one day something happened. I happened to mention that the same pastor who officiated at Jimi Hendrix' funeral also dedicated them. Bingo! Now it became THEIR story, and they stole it from me.

Just so you know, I actually stayed in touch with Janie over the years. She is the CEO of Experience Hendrix as well as the Executive Director of the Jimi Hendrix Park Foundation. I think it's been a good ten or eleven years since we last exchanged e-mail. That gives me an idea: I should send her a copy of this picture!

Now, about that beehive....It was developed in 1960. Surprisingly, it still shows up in movies and remains a symbol of 1960's kitsch. Now I'm wondering, did the other BVG's wear beehives in the '60's too? Calling all BVG's-----send me your pictures.