PORT ARTHUR, Texas -- At a gathering to dedicate a historic marker in front of a childhood home of singer Janis Joplin, a friend remembered riding bikes as girls on the neighborhood’s winding roads.

Monteel Copple also remembered her childhood friend’s laugh as they tried to keep their skirts in place while hanging upside down on the school’s monkey bars.

“I can remember her giggle,” Copple told those gathered Saturday for the dedication of the Texas State Historical Marker.

Saturday would have been Joplin’s 65^th birthday. Born in 1943, she died on Oct. 4, 1970, from a drug overdose.

Joplin was 4 years old when her family moved into the home that now has the marker. Her first childhood home was torn down in 1980.

Alicia and David Sanchez and their 8-year-old son now live in the house. As they helped pull a Texas flag off the marker, the crowd applauded, with some shouting, “We love you Janis.”

The Joplins moved out in 1975, but many fans still drop by, Alicia Sanchez, 48, said. When she moved into the house about 10 years ago, she didn’t know anything about its former occupants.

“One day I just saw a TV crew out here shooting and I thought, ‘What’s going on,”’ she said. “I asked what they were doing and they told me that she (Joplin) used to live here. And then I started having people knock on my door asking to see my house.”