ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane helped write the soundtrack of the 1960's. The iconic rock bank played Woodstock, New York to Monterey, California.
While their sound blossomed in the music scene in San Francisco, Balin's love stroy blossomed in St. Augustine.
"I would say the early part of our relationship was the romance of St. Augustine, really," Sue Balin said. She met Marty Balin in New York in the early 2000's.
It just so happens that Sue's sister, Donna Wendler, lives in St. Augustine.
"My sisters and I are very close," Sue Balin said. "Naturally, he had to come with me there. He had never been there until he met me."
And the magic of St. Augustine got to this rock star.
"Once he discovered it, it was under the skin," Sue Balin said.
"We stayed at the Casa Monica. We would look out at the Lightner Museum," she recalled. She said even if family invited them to stay the night, he loved the Casa Monica in downtown so much, he wanted to stay there.
Wendler remembers Marty liked "the bookstores, the people, the fans. And when I say the fans... not because they were oodeling him, but because people were genuine. He appreciated that."
Marty Balin did musical performances in Wendler's gallery on King Street downtown. He is also a painter and it became his signature gallery.
And then in 2016, Hurricane Matthew hit. King Street in St. Augustine was flooded with water up to 2-3 feet high in places. The gallery was flooded too, but Wendler and one of her other sisters salvaged the artwork before the storm hit.
"We were so grateful everything was saved," Sue Balin said.
Without going into detail, Sue says Marty had been gracefully dealing with health issues for two years. Last Thursday, he passed away at age of 76.
"Thursday came very unexpectedly for me and for our children," she said.
Sue Balin and her sister hint that they're working to reopen another gallery or showplace for Marty's artwork and music.
"There was one thing he lived for and that was to share his art and his music and that is something I will always do," Sue Balin said.