Peggy Caserta, whose funky Haight-Ashbury clothing boutique was a magnet for young bohemians and musicians, and who exploited her relationship with Janis Joplin in a much-panned 1973 memoir that she later disavowed, died on Nov.
21 at her home in Tillamook, Ore. She was 84. Her partner and only immediate survivor, Jackie Mendelson, confirmed the death but did not specify a cause.
The Louisiana-born Ms. Caserta was 23 and working at a Delta Air Lines office in San Francisco when she decided to open a clothing store for her cohort, the lesbians in her neighborhood.
She found an empty storefront on Haight Street, near the corner of Ashbury, which she rented for $87.50 a month. At first Ms.