Chet Helms, the revered father of the 1967 Summer of Love and a music promoter who launched the career of singer Janis Joplin, has died of complications from a stroke. He was 62.
Helms, who once stood at the center of the 1960s Bay Area music scene, died Saturday surrounded by friends and family at San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Center.
“It was a beautiful death,” said his wife Judy Davis. “It was a goodbye party. We all sang to him and told stories. He died as he lived