Barbara Cope

Barbara Cope died in a fire at her mother's home in East Dallas on the morning of January 14, 2018. She was 67 and was survived by a son. Her 93-year-old mother Earline Collins was injured in the blaze and died on August 24, 2018.

In 1987, she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and discussed her time as a groupie. She told Winfrey that she had had sex with about 2,000 musicians.

Elton John said he "got along with her famously." Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant dedicated the song "Dazed & Confused" to her on stage in 1973, and a number of the band's bootleg tracks are named after her. The first track on the first album by British group Three Man Army features lyrics about her and is entitled "Butter Queen".

Cope said she visited 52 major cities in the United States while following bands, and traveled to 11 different countries with them. She "retired" from groupie life in 1972. She apparently had a collection of Jimi Hendrix autographed material that she sold to help make ends meet in later years.

She married David Cope on May 23, 1968 in Dallas, and had one son, born in 1968.

She said that she became a groupie in 1965 during a concert at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium. She toured with Traffic and Jimi Hendrix before joining up with Joe Cocker in 1970. She is featured in a seven-minute segment of the 1971 Cocker documentary film Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

Barbara Cope (née Sheltman; March 19, 1950 – January 14, 2018) was an American rock and roll groupie, known in the late 1960s and early 1970s as "The Butter Queen".

Barbara Sheltman was the daughter of Earline Miller and Joe Sheltman. She was born in Hunt County, Texas, on March 19, 1950 and attended Bryan Adams High School in East Dallas.