Jerome John Garcia is born in San Francisco and named after the famous composer Jerome Kern by his parents Joe Garcia and Ruth Garcia (née Clifford). He is part of a musical family. His dad, a Spanish immigrant, is employed as a ballroom jazz musician and his mother, a Swedish-Irish nurse, plays the piano. Garcia takes piano lessons during his childhood and the family sing together.

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When Jerry is four, two-thirds of his right middle finger is amputated following an accident with his brother whilst chopping wood.

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Another tragic event happens when he goes on a fishing and camping trip with his father. Aged five Jerry watches him drown in a river.

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He attends an art programme at the San Francisco Institute which sparks his interest in art.

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Garcia attends tenth grade at Balboa High School where he starts smoking marijuana with his friends.

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He resents being made to take piano lessons throughout his youth and at the age of fifteen he becomes a fan of rock 'n' roll. Influenced by musicians like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran he asks his mum to exchange the birthday gift of an accordion for an electric guitar. He learns to play it without having lessons.

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Garcia drops out of high school at seventeen and joins the US army stationed in San Francisco. He spends his spare time playing guitar.

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He is discharged and spends time experiencing the music scene in Palo Alto and living in his car. Around this time he meets Robert Hunter who will go on to collaborate with the Grateful Dead. After they participate in the local music scene, they decide with Phil Lesh (later the bassist in Grateful Dead), to record some songs which appear on the Midnight Special show on KPFA.
Garcia plays and begins teaching acoustic guitar and banjo around this time. One of his pupils is Bob Matthews who will go on to create many of the band's albums. He in turn introduces Garcia to his friend Bob Weir (another founding member of the band) in 1963.

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Garcia meets his first wife Sara Ruppenthal Garcia and they marry on 23rd April of the same year. On 8th december she gives birth to a girl, Heather. The marriage only lasts four years.

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Around this time Garcia performs bluegrass and folk music with bands including the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers where he plays guitar, banjo, vocals and harmonica. Then he forms another group, the Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions which includes Ron McKernan.
It is around this time that he starts experimenting with LSD.

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The band reforms as an electric blues band 'the Warlocks' with the additions of Phil Lesh on bass guitar and Bill Kreutzmann on percussion. Garcia plays lead guitar and vocals. When the band learns that there is another band with the same name as them, Garcia opens a dictionary and comes up with the name 'Grateful Dead' in 1966.

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The band's first album, 'The Grateful Dead' is released by Warner Brothers. The band tour almost constantly throughout the three decades they are together. Their fans become known as the 'Deadheads' and they call the band 'The Dead'.
On October 2nd the band members' home is raided for drugs by the police and they are arrested.

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During this time Garcia guest stars with a number of bands including the 'New Riders of the Purple Sage' (a band which he helped form), 'Jefferson Starship', and 'Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young'.
The Grateful Dead begin to return to their folk roots with the albums 'Workingman's Dead' and 'American Beauty' which are both hits and make up for the less successful first four albums.
In January the police raid the hotel the band are staying in. Garcia avoids being arrested by not being present.
A month later on February 2, 1970, Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams and Garcia have their first of two children, a girl named Annabelle Walker Garcia.
In August his mother is involved in a serious car accident and he leaves recording sessions of 'American Beauty' to visit her. She dies in September of the same year.

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Garcia begins a solo career with 'Hooteroll?', which is released by Douglas Records. Howard Wales helps compose the album. Other solo albums follow, often with Meryl Saunders playing jazz keyboards.

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The group's reputation grows due to their ability to improvise and never play a song in the same way twice. Their triple live album 'Europe'72' shows how important their live performances are. After becoming ill in 1971 this album is the last of the keyboardist Ron McKernan. But Keith Godchaux and his wife Donna Jean Godchaux join the band. The album is their best selling live one and acheives platinum status in the USA. Jerry composes many of the songs e.g. 'Franklin's Tower', 'Scarlet Begonias', 'Shakedown Street', and 'Terrapin Station'. Robert Hunter provides the lyrics for these songs as well as for the band's signature song 'Dark Star'. The music is a mixture of the styles that influence Jerry including Bluesgrass, Country and Western, Rock and Jazz.

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Garcia helps found the bluegrass band 'Old and in the Way'. Around this time he collaborates with his friend the mandolinist David Grisman, as well as with Vassar Clements, and John Kahn.

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On September 21, Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams gives birth to Garcia's third daughter, Theresa Adams Garcia.
In 1975 whilst still being with Carolyn he starts seeing Deborah Koons who he will later marry.

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Jerry starts one of many side projects, 'The Jerry Garcia Band' which helps to create what later becomes known as Jam Band music.
Other groups which Garcia joins during this period include the 'Black Mountain Boys', 'Legion of Mary', 'Reconstruction', and the 'Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band'.
Throughout the seventies he contributes to over fifty studio albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane and Tom Fogerty. He works for motown and plays in a regular basis with Bob Dylan.
He plays pedal-steel guitar for the 'New Riders of the Purple Sage', 'Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young', and for 'Brewer & Shipley's'.

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Garcia's heroin addiction culminates in a band intervention which results in him checking into rehab.

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Garcia collapses in a diabetic coma waking up a few days later. This is due to his alcohol, drug and weight problems. He quickly recovers and plays again with the Grateful Dead a year later.

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Garcia's solo productivity slows down during the 80s, as he struggles with heroin addiction and diabetes.
After a long lapse of time, he once more plays the pedal-steel guitar with Bob Dylan in 1987.
Garcia spends time with Manasha Matheson, usually while he is on tour with the Grateful Dead. They produce Garcia's fourth and final child, a girl called Keelin Garcia, who is born December 20, 1987.
The ice cream makers 'Ben and Jerry's' create a new flavour of ice cream called Cherry Garcia, named after the guitarist. It quickly becomes the most popular flavour.

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Garcia suffers a relapse and the band have to cancel their 1992 tour. He tries to improve his health. He had previously offered for sale and auction a number of illustrations, lithographs, and water colours. Some of these pieces become the basis of a line of men's ties characterised by bright colours and abstract patterns. Even in 2005, new styles and designs continue to be produced and sold.

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After divorcing Carolyn in January, Garcia re-encounters Deborah Koons, in a shop. They get married on February 14 of the same year.
Garcia is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead.

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The body of Garcia is found on the floor of his room at the rehabilitation clinic at 4:23 a.m. The cause of death is a heart attack. His funeral is held on the 12th August.
On August 13th, a public memorial is held at the Polo Fields of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and is attended by around twenty-five thousand people. The crowds produce hundreds of flowers, gifts and images.

On April 4, 1996, Bob Weir and Deborah Koons spread half of Garcia's cremated ashes in the Ganges River in India, a sacred site to the Hindu. Then, according to Garcia's last wishes, the other half of his ashes are poured into the San Francisco Bay.

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Rolling Stone Magazine places Jerry Garcia as number thirteen in their list of 'Hundred Greatest Guitarists of All Time'.
Since 2002 about a thousand people gather annually to celebrate Jerry Garcia's life on the first Sunday of August with an event known as 'Jerry Day'.

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