ALEXANDRIA, Ind. — Joey Martin Feek, who left her Indiana home to become a popular country singer but never forgot her roots, died Friday at the age of 40 following a battle with cervical cancer.

Husband Rory Feek confirmed Joey’s passing on his blog, This Life I Live.

“My wife’s greatest dream came true today. She is in Heaven.

“The cancer is gone, the pain has ceased and all her tears are dry. Joey is in the arms of her beloved brother Justin and using her pretty voice to sing for her savior.

“At 2:30 this afternoon, as we were gathered around her, holding hands and praying.. my precious bride breathed her last. And a moment later took her first breath on the other side.”

Joey and Rory had moved from their Pottsville, Tenn., farmhouse and back to Martin’s childhood home in November when her health condition worsened.

The couple had one child together, Indiana Boon Feek, who was born Feb. 17, 2014, with Down syndrome. The family also includes Feek’s daughters, Hope and Heidi, from a previous marriage.

Several years ago, when Feek first brought Martin home to meet his family, Feek’s sister, Marcy Gray, liked her immediately. The two grew closer and opened a restaurant, called Marcy Jo’s, in Pottsville.

“When you’re around her, you can just feel the love,” Gray told the Anderson (Indiana) Herald Bulletin. “Joey has changed me in a lot of different ways. For me, today, I’m a better person because of Joey.”

Martin earned national prominence when she and Feek performed as Joey+Rory on the TV reality-competition show “Can You Duet” in 2008. They placed third among eight duos. In October of that year, their debut album, “The Life of a Song,” was released and included “Cheater, Cheater,” which was one of the TV show favorites. The album reached No. 10 on the country charts.

They recorded seven albums together, with the latest, “Hymns That Are Important to Us,” released Feb. 12.

The Feeks also hosted “The Joey+Rory Show,” a TV program filmed at their Pottsville studio. In 2010, they won the Top New Vocal Duo of the Year award from the Academy of Country Music and in 2011 were named top Vocal Duo at the Inspirational Country Music Awards.

Growing up in Indiana

As word of her death circulated throughout her hometown of Alexandria and the country music world, the singer was remembered by those who were very close to her and by those who saw her around her hometown in northern Madison County, about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

Jon Howell, Martin’s former basketball coach and elementary school teacher, watched her grow up and, like many, knew she was special.

“You could tell when she was just a little girl that she had talent,” he said. “Everyone around her knew there was something else brewing. She had a rare talent for music.”

Martin, one of five children born to Jack and June Martin, played basketball for Howell at Alexandria-Monroe High School and was an all-conference player in the 1992-93 season.

Howell said he challenged her when she and other freshman basketball players started at the varsity level. The coach put the girls on a weight training program, and Martin rose to the challenge.

Howell said it showed the work ethic that was characteristic of her family. Martin grew stronger, physically and mentally.

“I remember a specific big, strong girl gave her a shoulder block. Joey, two months earlier, would have gone flying, (but) she stood her ground,” he recounted.

Howell is one of many who see Martin as a hero.

“She’s grown in my eyes. And she’s one of the heroes in my life because she is positively affecting so many people by being a witness with how she’s accepting this life-altering situation, this adversity in her life,” he said in late 2015.

Martin first sang in public during a Christmas program when she was a kindergartner, according to a magazine interview with Jack Martin in 2010.

“Joey got to sing two lines by herself, and when she sang … it was on pitch,” he recalled. “She couldn’t say her words plain, but the pitch, the timing, the charisma and not being scared … Joey just took it and went with it.”

Battling cancer

After graduating from high school and working as an assistant to a veterinarian in Sheridan, Indiana, Martin moved to Nashville in 1998 to pursue a country music career. That’s where she met Feek, a songwriter. They married in 2002.

Martin was diagnosed with cervical cancer during the summer of 2014, and she underwent surgery to remove the cancer. She had another surgery last summer after the cancer returned and spread to her colon.

A CT scan in late October to prepare Martin for her next round of chemotherapy revealed two quarter-sized tumors on her colon and several smaller tumors scattered in her abdomen. The cancer was spreading aggressively despite treatment.

Martin and Feek returned to her hometown of Alexandria to spend her last days with her family.

Feek turned to the Internet to ask for prayers on his blog, This Life I Live.

“We ask for your prayers, too. For a miracle,” he wrote on his blog. “And even more so, for peace with His decision.”

On Nov. 9, Feek published a blog post titled “An Answer to Prayer.” He explained that Martin, in intense pain from tumor growth and inflammation, was rushed to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie early the morning of Nov. 6.

Martin then went to her parents’ home in Alexandria to be in hospice care.

One of Martin’s sisters, Jody, took a leave from working as a nurse to provide hospice care during Martin’s final days, according to Howell.

On Nov. 5, hundreds of friends and fans gathered in the rain in downtown Alexandria to hold a candlelight prayer vigil for Martin. On Dec. 21, Alexandria First Baptist Church members recorded a video Christmas card, singing “Silent Night” for her.

Martin also drew loved ones from far away. Julie Zamboldi, who started out as a fan and ended up being Martin’s best friend, visited at least four times from her home near Portland, Oregon, since Martin and Feek started staying in Alexandria.

Zamboldi and Martin met about eight years ago at Joey+Rory’s annual Bib and Buckle Fest. After meeting her through family, the two hit it off.

“There’s just something about Joey and Rory that draws you to them,” Zamboldi said. “She has a magnetic draw, at least for me.”

Zamboldi has lost two friends to cancer. When Martin told her the bad news, she apologized to Zamboldi for putting her through losing another friend.

Zamboldi said it was a pleasure to spend some of her last days with Martin.

“The beautiful thing, and Rory has said this, we’re not sitting around and waiting for her to die,” Zamboldi said. “We’re helping her live.”

‘She was phenomenal’

Kyle Williams, a classmate of Martin’s, said it was incredible to grow up with her and see her passion for music develop into a successful career. Despite her fame, he said, she was always a country girl from a small town.

“She was always the pretty girl. She was always the country girl,” he said. “All of the boys were always in love with Joey.”

Williams said he remembers some of the boys in Alexandria would spend more money than they should at the horse fundraiser at the Madison County 4-H Fair so they could be close to Martin, who had grown tall and slender with dark eyes and hair.

Martin’s lyrics and song choices exuded hometown appreciation, Williams said. Listeners knew where she grew up.

Many community members, including Williams and Dean Morehead, now an assistant principal at Alexandria-Monroe High School, remember Martin singing “Coat of Many Colors,” by Dolly Parton.

Morehead, who is a few years older than Martin, said he would never forget Martin singing the song at Orestes Elementary School.

“I don’t even know if she was in kindergarten then, but I still, to this day, remember that,” he said. “Even at 10 years old, I knew she was phenomenal.”

In December, Martin watched the debut of the NBC TV show, “Coat of Many Colors,” based on Parton’s childhood. Martin’s rendition of the song is included on Joey+Rory’s “Country Classics.”

In the liner notes of that disc, Martin wrote, “When I was about four years old, my mom and dad gave me a Dolly Parton cassette tape, and I took it upstairs and played it over and over again until I learned all of the words to ‘Coat of Many Colors’ even though I didn’t know how to read yet.”

Recorded in 2014 in Nashville and Pottsville, “Country Classics” also features the Townes Van Zandt-penned “If I Needed You,” which was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Country Duo/Group Performance.

When they learned of their first Grammy nomination on Dec. 7, Martin set a goal of living to see the Feb. 15 awards ceremony. She also hoped to see the release of a hymns album on Feb. 12 and to see daughter Indiana turn 2 years old Feb. 17.

“Joey set a personal goal of being here for all three,” Feek wrote in his blog. “She’s so faith-filled and determined, don’t be surprised if you see us sitting in the audience at the award show, holding hands and smiling when they open the ballot and read the winner’s name.”

Martin did not feel well enough to attend the awards program, and Feek stayed in Alexandria with her. His two daughters from his previous marriage represented Joey+Rory at the Grammys. The duo did not receive the award in the category in which they were nominated.

‘So real; so transparent’

As her talent matured with her age, people around the world began to listen to Joey Martin’s music.

Bill and Gloria Gaither, renowned gospel singer-songwriters based in Alexandria, had children who grew up with Martin. Years later, Gloria Gaither and Martin worked together to record music.

“She has the wide-eyed wonder of a kid, and she really is like that,” Gaither said.

Gaither recorded multiple music videos with Martin, starting with the 2008 video for “A Campfire Homecoming,” when the country duo was known as Martin and Feek. Gaither also worked with Martin in her studio in Nashville.

“They are so real and so transparent and so what they are, the audiences love them,” she said of Joey+Rory.

Gaither said she almost felt compelled to call Martin common, but that wouldn’t be the right word.

“It is very uncommon for people to be genuine,” she said. “They are just genuine, is all I can say.”

Gaither admired how Martin and Feek refused to dwell on Martin’s imminent death.

“What they’ve modeled so well is: What about the time you have?” she said. “How do you live the eternity of this moment?”

All in all, Gaither said, Martin’s story is simple.

“Her big story is she treasures the food; she treasures her yard; she treasures her chickens; she loves her husband; she treasures her friends,” she said. “That’s the story.”

Filchak and Miley write for the Anderson (Indiana) Herald Bulletin.