RESEARCHING MARTY ROBBINS IN GLENDALE, ARIZONA
My sister and I just returned from a great research trip. Kayo and I met people who knew Marty and people who keep his memory alive through the “Friends of Marty Robbins” organization. Thanks to Jo Wenger for arranging a meeting at the Shot of Java coffee shop. She took us to the building that once housed Upton’s Malt Shop, where Marty met Marizona in 1946. We walked the streets Martin David Robinson walked as a youth. We saw the general area where twins Martin and Mamie were born alongside the Arizona Canal. We visited with Andrew Means, who wrote Mamie’s story, “Some Memories.” I’d been seeking the photo booklet Mamie published in 1985, and librarian Anne Owens provided me with a copy. We ate at La Perla, where Marty used to eat. We found the empty lot in Phoenix where his dad built a shack for the family in 1930. It’s still an empty lot. And Kayo had her photo taken at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail in downtown Phoenix.
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