Janette Carter

Janette Carter

Janette Carter (July 2, 1923 – January 22, 2006) was the last surviving child of A.P. and Sara Carter, of Carter Family musical fame. In 1976, she and community members built an 880-seat amphitheater, the Carter Family Fold, beside the store her father operated in Southwestern Virginia. Today, the Carter Family Fold attracts more than 50,000 visitors a year. She had three children from her first husband: Donald William (deceased), Rita Janette, and James Delaney (Dale). The surviving two reside in her hometown of Maces Spring, (Scott County) Virginia, which is nestled in Poor Valley at the foot of Clinch Mountain. She died in 2006 and was buried next to her mother, Sara Carter Bayes, and her brother at the Mount Vernon United Methodist Church Cemetery in Maces Spring. Carter is a recipient of a 2005 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts, in recognition for her lifelong advocacy for the performance and preservation of Appalachian music.

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