a legendary Key West classic
Dottie Martin “…a legendary Key West classic.”
A headshot that her agent had photographed while in her late 20s.
Dottie was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. At age 17, she fell in love with a 4ft. 10in. jockey. They were married, traveled around the country, and soon later, divorced. Dottie started singing and performing at the age of 20.
In 1949, while visiting friends in New York, Dottie was set up with an audition at the St. Regis Hotel with Ray Block, Broadway songwriter, musician, and Big Band leader, who was associated with Music Corporation of America. The audition resulted in an agent, a vocal coach, and a budding career with radio producers. Television was very new and radio was still the ticket. She began learning how to perform by working in smaller clubs, traveling to various cities in the Northeast and returning to gigs in uptown New York.
Larry Smith and Dottie Martin in the 90s Sunday Showcase era.
Larry Smith and Dottie Martin celebrating her 90th Birthday together.
Dottie married again but it lasted only a year. In 1950, she started singing in Miami Beach, and later Palm Beach, Florida. When tourist season ended, there was no work. Her agent booked a week in Key West at the Tropic on Duval Street, which turned out to be a strip club with a gambling room. After a week, Dottie moved on to other Key West venues and got a new agent.
In the 50s, Key West was a Navy town with three squadrons of submarines stationed here. Dottie said, “Those Navy guys loved her and her 19-inch waist”. Key West was beautiful and laid back, rents were very cheap, the weather was perfect, and there was plenty of work. Dottie worked the Sands, Logan’s Lobster House, Two Friends, Gallery Lounge (now Bull & Whistle) and many other clubs.
She kept an apartment in Palm Beach and sang in both locations for several years. In 1972, she moved to Key West full time, renting an apartment for $25 a week. She remembers one apartment, near the beach, where the breeze would almost ‘blow her out of bed’. She worked everywhere and sang with everyone for 34 years until retiring and moving to Winter Haven in 2006.
Dottie Martin and Coffee Butler sang together often at the Bamboo Room, and later the Hukilau
Her favorite Key West performer was Coffee Butler. Club owners, Jim and Jack Holt, ‘stole’ Coffee and Dottie from other clubs for their Bamboo Room on Appelrouth Lane. She remembers singing “Over the Rainbow,” one of her favorites, and many other classics with Coffee at the Hukilau. They played together a long time, when it was extremely difficult for black men and white women to work together. One night after work, around 2am, Dottie saw Coffee walking down the street – his car was in the shop. She stopped and asked him if he wanted a ride. Coffee said, “Are you trying to get me killed?” Jim Crow had, sadly made it to 1950s Key West.
Both legendary performers together once again.
Dottie traveled to Havana, Cuba in 1959, shortly after the revolution. She traveled with another young redhead singer and said American women were very popular. She met Pablito Del Rio, a young tenor with a great voice. They toured Havana for a few days and had great fun (Dottie said he was cute too). A few years later, he had left Cuba and was singing in Miami. Dottie went to hear him perform often.
Peter Graves was shooting the movie, “Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef”, in Key West and came by to hear Dottie sing one night. They went out on a date a few days later. Dottie hadn’t realized Peter was so tall until he asked her to dance. She says she came up to his navel.
Dottie performed with Bobby Nesbit for years. Bobby said, “Dottie was a class act and one of the legendary Key West classics. She was always dressed to ‘the nines’ when she came into a club. She always sang “La vie en rose”, with me at the piano.”
Dottie remembers working a lot of shows with Larry Smith at the Pier House. Larry said, “I have had the great fortune to accompany Dottie Martin for years, and during every performance she has commanded rapt attention from her audience by mesmerizing them in her unique, whisper soft, dignified, understated, fascinating, elegant fashion.”
Another favorite, Skipper Kripitz said, “Dottie Martin represented a bygone time of formality, class, and specialness of performance. 
She wove her magic spell of dramatic fantasy and charm in every story she would tell through her show. Dottie is the consummate, timeless cabaret performer. We’d always be in awe.”
Dottie Martin would often miss her many Key West friends. In 2017, She celebrated her 90th birthday at the Little Room Jazz Club with friends Skipper Kripitz and Larry Smith. Her voice was strong, she sang for an hour, and later she was able to see her old friend, Coffee Butler. A photograph of Dottie from that evening hangs on the Jazz Club’s Wall of Fame.
We last spoke just before the holidays in 2022 – Dottie did most of the talking. She would always ask me about her friends and would usually end our conversations with “Do they still remember me in Key West?” Dottie turned 96 on January 8, 2023, sharing the same birthday with Elvis Presley. She passed away peacefully on January 20, 2023. How could anyone forget Dottie Geraldine (Garrison) Martin?
Skipper Kripitz still looks on in awe as Dottie performs at the Little Room Jazz Club celebrating her 90th Birthday.
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