Inside the Life of Jerry Garcia's Spouse: A Glimpse into Their Private World

Best known as the principal songwriter, vocalist, lead guitarist, and co-founder of the ever-iconic rock band, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, like many other gifted rockstars, battled his own set of demon throughout his life. Garcia's feats knew no bound when he was alive and its twenty-eight years since his death, yet the rockstar's contribution to the genre's musical color is still widely celebrated.  

Jerome John Garcia, born on August 1, 1942, in Galicia, Northwest Spain, his early life was marred with strings of worst possible tragedies, including his father's death by drowning, and his friend's death in a car crash. The rockstar's career peaked in the 60s with the world recognizing him as a psychedelic musical giant, but Garcia's personal trajectory didn't follow the same illustrious path of his profession.  

Jerry Garcia Married Young!   

Jerry's personal life might not be eligible to be deemed successful but the late rockstar, at least, had one hell of a ride. The Grateful Dead crooner married a total of three times. While his first two marriages fell apart, Garcia's third marriage faced an untimely end.   

The late Hall of Famer had just delved into professional musical aspirations when he came across Sara Ruppenthal, a young jobbing dame who then worked at a coffee house behind Kepler's Books, where the then-dreamy-eyed Jerry, also a student at Stanford University, was a frequent visitor.

The pair's meet-cute, followed by an intense dating bliss, and their ultimate nuptial all seemingly happened within a span of a year, making their relationship a whirlwind affair. The then-upcoming rockstar and his lady love walked down the aisle in April 1963.  

Jerry and Ruppenthal, as a couple, also bonded on their love for music as evident by their early rookie live collaborations. The Dark Star hitmaker and Ruppenthal welcomed their only child, daughter Heather in the December of 1963. But as most hastily made commitments do, the couple's marriage, too, fell apart after a point.  

As Garcia's first marriage to Sara started amid the rock band's fast catapultian to fame, the spouses faced more than just mundane conjugal woes. As per sources, Garcia's constant touring, drugs, and unrestrained way of life were majors contributing factors in their divorce. The pair finalized their divorce in 1967, a year after Jerry started an affair with his future second wife.   

The Truth About Jerry Garcia's Second Marriage!   

The Grateful Dead vocalist was still married to Sara when he fell head over heels for Caroline Adams, a Merry Prankster who was famously known as Mountain Girl. In her memoir, Caroline recalls how she met the rock and roll giant in 1964 at Dana Morgan’s Music Store in Stanford, CA.   

One a verified psychedelic star and another, an ardent consumer, Garcia and Adams bonded on platonic level almost immediately, but it wasn't after a couple of years that a romance sparked between the two. "He put the mojo on me," the Mountain Girl says of her reunion with Garcia. "I got a huge jolt and I had very vivid images of us being together.  

The Grateful Dead fame and the Mountain Girl lived like any other married couple, but it wasn't until 1981 that the pair officially tied the knot. Just like Garcia's past with Sara, Caroline had also been married once before. She shared a daughter, Sunshine, with her ex-husband, George Walker, a fellow Merry Prankster.  

The couple welcomed two daughters of their own, Annabelle Walker Garcia, in 1970, and Theresa Garcia, in 1973. In a twisted tale of celebrity's unconventional mores, Jerry started a relationship with filmmaker Deborah Koons a year after Adams gave birth to Theresa.  

Garcia's affair with Deborah inevitably strained his relationship with Adams, but when his romance fizzled out with Koon in 1977, the rockstar found his way back to Caroline. The couple's 1981 nuptial is said to be a marriage of convenience as it was carried out for tax purposes.  

Although Garcia's nuptial with Adams lasted until 1994, the pair, as confessed by the singer himself, had been living apart since the 70s. While married to Adams, Jerry had welcomed another daughter, Keelin, with a woman named Manasha Matheson. 

Jerry's convenient marriage with Adams only came to an end after the guitarist decided he wanted to venture into his third marriage with Koons in 1994.   

Inside Jerry Garcia's Last Nuptial!  

Garcia's third marriage with Deborah was a short-lived tale. They could have had a better ending had it not been for the decades of neglect, which includes Garcia's persistent drug abuse, and hedonistic living that finally started to catch up, taking away the guitarist life at 53 in 1995.   

As per sources, the Scarlet Begonias hitmaker reconnected with his ex, Koons, in early 1993. His on-papers marriage with Adams entailed the singer's freedom to start an affair, not that he had ever adhered by the conventional marriage norms.  

Jerry and Koons tied the knot on the Valentine's Day in 1994- only to remain married until Garcia's death at a rehabilitation clinic on August 9, 1995. After his tragic demise, tension soon ensued between the singer's widow and his second ex-wife, Adams, over Garcia's estate and money.  

The nasty fight that went on for over a year had the two wives of Garcia spewing dirty allegations against each other, and at time, even airing out the dirty laundry. The battle came to end in 1997, with a judge ruling in favor of Adams and granting her the $5 million Garcia had promised her before their divorce.  

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