Pat Martin (6)

Born January 2, 1955, in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Died September 25, 2019. Martin worked at Appalshop and later was the founder/owner of Turquoise Records. Among the artists that recorded for the label were Special Consensus, The New Coon Creek Girls, Southern Rail, Gary Ferguson, High Country (from California), Bluegrass Patriots, No Strings Attached (from Virginia), the fiddler Glen Duncan, Judy Marshall, Radio Flyer, Sidesaddle, and the Andy Rau Band. Her home-town-based label was in operation for about 10 years from 1986 to 1995. Martin was Vice-President of the International Bluegrass Music Assiciation; Executive Director of the Mountain Arts Center, a performing arts venue in Prestonsburg, Kentucky; and Executive Director of the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (later Association for Independent Music (AFIM)). She served as an adviser for the Kentucky Arts Council Kentucky Peer Advisory Network (KPAN), and as associate vice president and director of arts and culture outreach at the Center for Rural Development in Somerset, where she settled in 2003. Additionally, Martin served as a director, or officer, on the following boards: Somerset’s Watershed Arts Alliance, the Appalachian Artisan Center in Hindman, KY, the Kentucky Humanities Council, the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center, Arts Kentucky, the Floyd County Chamber of Commerce, and many more. Until her retirement in 2015, she worked for the Southeast Kentucky Economic Development Corporation (SKED).