Janette Carter, 82; Last Surviving Child of Country Music Family

Janette Carter, 82, the last surviving child of country music’s Carter Family, who in recent years preserved her parents’ old-time style with weekly performances in Kingsport, Tenn., died Sunday at a hospital in Kingsport of complications from Parkinson’s disease and other illnesses.

Carter was the daughter of A.P. and Sara Carter. Her parents and her father’s sister-in-law, Maybelle Carter, formed a vocal trio that was discovered in 1927 when talent scout Ralph Peer came through the Tennessee-Virginia border town of Bristol to record mountain music.

They recorded “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow,” “Little Log Cabin by the Sea” and “Poor Orphan Child” with a sound and harmony unheard of at the time and immensely influential on future country music.

Janette Carter performed with her parents while growing up. She spent much of her youth in Texas after the family moved there from Virginia in 1938 to broadcast over 500,000-watt Mexico-based radio station XERA.

After the death of her father in 1960, Janette Carter dedicated her life to preserving not only the Carter Family music but also the folk and country music of Appalachia.

One result of that effort was the establishment of the Carter Family Fold, an auditorium built from railroad ties and school bus seats near the family farm in Hiltons, Va.