Highwater, Jamake

Jamake Highwater (b. ca. 1930) was the director and choreographer for the San Francisco Contemporary Dancers from 1954 to 1967, and a rock music journalist and travel writer from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s. The year of Jamake Highwater's birth is unknown, but was probably between 1930 and 1933. (A more exact date is unavailable, as Highwater, who was adopted as a child, has evidently not had access himself to accurate information concerning the date or place of his birth.) When he was about five years old, he became the foster son of a Southern California couple, Marcia and Alexander Marks, who later adopted him.

Known as Jack Marks or Jay Marks, Highwater grew up in the San Fernando Valley, near Los Angeles. Although his childhood was in many ways a difficult time, there were several adults from those years whom he came to credit as lasting influences in his life. Among them was one of his grammar school teachers, Alta Black, who recognized and nurtured his writing talent; the others were Frederick and Virginia Dorr and Frances Grigsby, neighbors of the Markses, who shared their extensive library and record collection with him.

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