Ianthe McGuinn was born Dolores Deleon in Ray, Arizona in 1942. (She changed her name to Ianthe shortly after her husband Jim McGuinn changed his middle name to Roger as they became followers of Subud.) After spending a childhood with her resilient and hard-working mother (she's profiled in Songs My Mother Sang to Me, an oral history by Patricia Martin), she became involved with the 1960s folk music scene in Hollywood, California. During this experience, she met and later married Roger (aka Jim) McGuinn, who was on the threshold of fame and success as the founding member of his rock music group, the Byrds. After divorce and raising two young sons as a single mom, she later remarried and completed a nursing degree in her hometown of Tucson, where she currently writes stories and poetry.
I first met Ianthe when she had gone back to her birth name of Dolores and married my manager Eddie Tickner. I was immediately impressed by this beautiful woman with her serene presence, and we have remained friends over the years. Underneath that calm exterior tho', lay a tensile strength revealed here as she bears witness to her heady days with the Byrds, the emerging L.A. rock scene of the 60s, to gender and racial bias, and a tumultuous marriage to Roger McGuinn that would end with her raising their two sons alone. In the Wings is the story of a true survivor, told with a keen eye and ultimately, a compassionate heart: -- Emmylou HarrisDolores (Ianthe) was there at the birth of the Byrds and experienced life as a wife during those triumphant and tempestuous years. Her story is more than a rock memoir, embracing a Mexican-American upbringing at a time of immense social change. Her reinvention as a working mother in the aftermath of the Sixties' party is a poignant story of perseverance and survival.: Johnny Rogan, author of Byrds: Requiem For The Timeless, Volumes 1 & 2.In the Wings is a compelling tale of a woman's struggle to maintain a marriage with a celebrity rock 'n' roll band leader who becomes wasted on the way, and her ultimate redemption raising two children as a single mother amidst the conflicts of Sixties excess. I followed Ianthe's story with enthusiasm. Her victory was my hope with every turn of the page. Inspirational. Jesse Lee Kincaid Rising Sons
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