Sad news to share just before Christmas…
We are working on a more complete remembrance of this remarkable woman, but will quickly share this note that Tom and Betsy Adler have passed along.
I’m truly sorry to report that our very dear friend, Marty Godbey – wife, lifelong companion, and best friend of BGRASS-L and IBMA-L listowner Frank Godbey – has suddenly passed away.
On Monday, Marty had undergone what was supposed to be a straightforward and relatively minor surgery to correct several lingering problems from previous cardiac bypass surgery, done about five or six years ago. Though she seemed at first to be recovering properly, she died sometime early this morning.
No memorial arrangements have yet been made, but Frank has said that there will be no public funeral, and that cards and flowers should not be sent.
Marty was a faithful friend to bluegrass music and those who play and sustain it. She published many essays, articles, and critical liner notes, and was a brilliant photographer, whose many pictures have helped immeasurably to document the past half-century of our music’s history. Her forthcoming artistic biography of J.D. Crowe is still on track to be published in the coming year by the University of Illinois Press, and will, I’m sure, both delight us and remind us all of the great loss we’ve suffered today.
She was a constant treasure in our own lives – she never let her many friends’ birthdays, anniversaries, triumphs or tragedies go unnoticed, always sending out personal cards and letters to let people know she and Frank were thinking of them.
Today, sadly, all our thoughts are with Frank and family. Rest in peace, Marty.
