The Betty Boards Foundation and Positive Legacy Launch Charity Auction for Grateful Dead’s Audio Engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson

Betty Cantor working with the Grateful Dead in Herouville, France, 6/21/71 (Photo credit: Rosie McGee)

The Betty Boards Foundation and Positive Legacy have partnered to launch a charitable auction featuring items from the music industry, including one-of-a-kind experiences and memorabilia. The auction is now open and will run through September 14, 2025, offering interested parties the opportunity to acquire winning items while simultaneously supporting the namesake and her current physical recovery and comfort needs. 

Items purchased at auction will support Betty Cantor-Jackson as she recovers from hip surgery and addresses flood damage in her rented home. Cantor-Jackson is highly regarded for her extensive work with the Grateful Dead as an audio engineer and producer from the 1960s to the late 1980s, including capturing the group’s esteemed concert from May 8, 1977, at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

The auction lists over 50 items, including a large assortment of concert posters from bands like the Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Radiators, Tom Waits, The String Cheese Incident, Dark Star Orchestra, Zero, Hot Tuna, and The Crosby Collective. Experiences range from a 30-minute virtual serenade with Bill Nershi and his wife, Jilian, a guitar lesson with Scott Law, and a 45-minute virtual percussion session led by Jason Hann. 

Betty Boards Foundation extends the mission “to empower women in the production and live music industries who have faced significant life challenges. We provide financial support to help these women reclaim their independence, elevate their craft, and thrive both personally and professionally. Through community, creativity, and conscious giving, we honor the legacy of women who turn up the volume on resilience and rewrite the story of what’s possible behind the scenes.” 

For more information and to bid on auction items, follow this link.

Read: What’s Become of the Bettys? The Fate of the Long-Lost Grateful Dead Soundboards.