Who is Grace Slick?

Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing) is an American singer and songwriter who is best known as one of the lead singers for the rock bands Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship. She was nominated for a Grammy award as Best Rock Female vocalist in 1981 for her solo album Dreams. In 1996 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Famous Kin

Grace Slick is a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers Myles Standish and William White. She has a number of presidential kin including, but not limited to, Millard Fillmore, Calvin Coolidge, James Garfield, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. Grant. Grace also has a connection to the current royal family through a common ancestor with Princess Diana.

Family Facts

The Whitman Massacre

Perrin Beza Whitman is the 2nd great-grandfather of Grace Slick. In 1843, when he was still a boy, his father consented to him heading west with his uncle Dr. Marcus Whitman. Perrin Beza Whitman was with Dr. Whitman when he led the first large party of wagon trains along the Oregon Trail. He helped his uncle establish a mission among the Cayuse tribe and learned much in the ways of the Indians and their languages.

In 1847, a measles epidemic wiped out all of the Cayuse children and half of the adults. Suspecting that the Whitman's were responsible, the Cayuse slaughtered Dr. Whitman, his wife and 12 other settlers in what became known as the Whitman Massacre. Young Perrin Whitman was not present when the massacre took place and learned about it almost two weeks later when a friendly Nez Perce native came to warn him that the Cayuse had put a bounty of a hundred head of horses for his scalp. Five of the Cayuse would eventually surrender and be hanged for their part in the Whitman Massacre.

Perrin Beza Whitman would go on to be the Indian agent and interpreter at the Lapwai Agency in Nez Perce County, Idaho. His respect among the Nez Perce was such that when the U.S. government tried to establish a treaty with them in 1865, the Nez Perce would not even consider the subject of a treaty without first summoning Perrin Whitman to be present. It was upon the successful completion of the treaty that Perrin Whitman was made an official interpreter for both the Indian department and war department.