American folksinger, acclaimed for over 30 years for her crystalline soprano. The daughter of blind musician and singer Charles Collins and Marjorie, a homemaker, Judy made her debut as a classical piano prodigy on her dad’s Denver radio show. She grew bored with her strict classical training and turned to folk music. When she was 18, she married Navy pilot Peter Taylor and gave birth to their son a year later.
When Peter took a teaching job in Connecticut, Judy began pursuing her music career in New York City, leaving much of the child-raising to Peter. They separated in 1963 and divorced the following year. Peter gained custody of their son in 1965.
Within five years she became a major folk star and a leading figure in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam movement. In 1968, the boy, then nine, returned to live with Judy. She was having problems with vodka and prescription drugs by then, and from one day to the next her mood was erratic. It took the next ten years for her to overcome her demons with a combination of therapy and drug-treatment programs, but her son carried on her example, and did not escape.
In 1987 she published her autobiography, “Trust Your Heart,” telling a story of a turbulent life; polio at 10, a suicide attempt at 14, booze, losing the bitter custody battle for her only child, Clark Taylor, when he was six, TV and bulimia, running from one lover to the next and the pain of living. When her son was 33 and in the midst of a divorce, the dad of a four-year-old daughter, he was a suicide on 1/15/1992, found dead in his ex-wife’s garage. The depths of grief forced her to quit work for a while.
On 4/16/1978, she met 41-year-old industrial designer Louis Nelson. As her life companion, he helped her weather the tragedy. They married on 4/16/1996, 18 years to the day after they met on a blind date at an Equal Rights Amendment fundraiser.
She published her first novel in July 1995, “Shameless,” a steamy rock’n’roll flavored whodunit. Unabashedly commercial, the novel has a companion CD of the same title, containing 13 songs that Collins wrote. She moved excitedly into a two-month, 30-city book tour.
In 1989, Collins started a cosmetic line, Judy Collins Harmonics, delighted to be able to offer alternates to cosmetic surgery for the baby-boomer approaching their 50s. She herself is still slender and vivid, almost childlike, at 50. She still does concerts from venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to college gyms.
Link to Wikipedia biography