Carolyn Adams

Carolyn Elizabeth Adams (born on May 6, 1946 in Poughkeepsie, New York), later known as Mountain Girl and Carolyn Garcia, is a former Merry Prankster and was the wife of the late Jerry Garcia.

She was born and grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and travelled to California in 1963 with her older brother Don shortly after she was expelled from high school. The reason she was expelled from her high school is because she got into a major fight with one of her teachers . In early 1964, Adams met Neal Cassady, who introduced her to Ken Kesey and his friends, one of whom gave her the name "Mountain Girl". Cassady took her to La Honda, Kesey's base of operations, where she quickly joined the inner circle of Pranksters and was briefly romantically involved with Kesey, having a daughter by him named Sunshine. The Grateful Dead song "Here Comes Sunshine" may or may not be an allusion to Adams' and Kesey's daughter (the Dead were fond of lyrics having double, often personal meanings). While Kesey was a fugitive, Adams had a relationship with another prankster named George Walker who would become her husband in 1967. The marriage between Adams and Walker did not last long and they separated in 1970 and were divorced in 1978.

Before marrying Jerry Garcia in 1981, they had two daughters. They lived in separate places and Garcia began a relationship with Deborah Koons, Garcia and Mountain Girl divorced in 1994, but remained friends until his death the following year. After Adams and Garcia divorced, he married Deborah Koons.

After Garcia's death, Mountain Girl was involved in litigation to obtain payments as per their divorce settlement agreement, ultimately agreeing to a $1,250,000 settlement to avoid further legal costs. .

Mountain Girl wrote a book on marijuana cultivation, called Primo Plant: Growing Sinsemilla Marijuana, first published in 1976 by Bookpeople. Adams currently sits on the board of the Rex Foundation and is on the advisory board of the Marijuana Policy Project. Adams married a logger named William Burwell and they live in Astoria, Oregon.

References

Further reading

• Jackson, Blair. (1999). Garcia: An American Life. New York, Viking. ISBN 0670886602. A biography of Jerry Garcia, which also has information about Carolyn Garcia.
• Wolfe, Tom. (1968). The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Describes the early years of Adams' relationship with Kesey and adventures with the Merry Pranksters.