Patti Smith
Punk Singer
Singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist whose 1975 album Horses significantly influenced the New York punk scene.
She was introduced to artists like Harry Belafonte and Bob Dylan when she was young and left her Jehovah's Witness background as a teenager.
She was the recipient of the 2010 National Book Award for Just Kids, her memoir.
She married Fred Sonic Smith on March 1, 1980 and they had a son named Jackson and a daughter named Jesse together before Fred's death in 1994.
Smith and Allen Ginsberg were close friends; they met when Ginsberg mistook her for an attractive young man and he bought her lunch.