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her seamstress and domestic work. He showed an amazing knack for drawing.
Barthe went to work as a chauffeur and butler for Harry Pond, whose family lived in New Orleans and maintained a summer home in the Bay. It was typical work for blacks in the early 1900s. But the Ponds realized this young man had greater potential when he instinctively knew what to do with a gift of oil paints.
Talent recognized
A church festival in New Orleans became the backdrop for Barthe?s first exhibit. There, Father Harry Cane of the Blessed Sacrament Parish was so impressed with a life-sized painting of Christ?s head that he helped the young man get into the Chicago Art Institute.
I Four years of instruction and another four years of private study with a master of anatomy prepared him for life as a painter.
! But that course was altered in 1928 when Barthe, on a whim, sculpted the heads of two friends. The pieces were entered in a Chicago exhibition, and clay and stone soon replaced his paint brushes.	.1
?	"He went to school for drawing, but sculpting was a gift,? Mrs. Williams says. "That came from within, not from schooling.?
But Bay residents seemed unaware of his growing success.
; "He was written up all over the world, and I wonder why he wasn?t known here,? his sister continues. ?"That?s the $64,000 question, you might say. 1 don?t know if it was the race question.
' ?Sometimes, you just call it ignorance.?
Hometown notices
When Barthe was 63, the Bay finally took notice. Some have criticized town officials for doing too little, too late. Others say that given the year
?	1964 ? and the fact that Mississippi was in the throes of integration, the ceremony was remarkable. The site was not city hall, but the St. Augustine Seminary, where Barthe had kept close ties.
Mayor John A. Scafide gave him the city key, and Barthe presented Bay St. Louis with the sculpted head of Thelma Helper Landry, which is still on display at the city-county library. Barthe and his subject, also a
Bay native, had become friends while both lived in Jamaica.
"I used to bring him grits and pralines to remind him of home. ? recalls Mrs. Landry who has moved back to the Bay.
?He^jave me a replica |if the piece
A bronze by Barthe
he presented, and I put it on my grand piano in Jamaica. My maid insisted it kept people from robbing us. She?d say, 'It watching what everybody do even if you not there.? ?
The original was presented to the town in September 1964. Journalist Clayton Rand took advantage of the ceremony to write about Barthe in his Dixie Guide newspaper.
"Soft spoken, cultured, cheerful, humble in his achievements, he says that nothing in his life is so deeply appreciated as the friendship and understanding of the white people of Mississippi and Louisiana.
"With all the current racial turmoil in mind, I asked Dr. Barthe if he would permit me to quote him on that. He replied. 'You may quote it and then underscore it.? ?
In an unusual step into controversial art, Barthe created in "Mother and Son? a moving piece that showed a black woman leaning over the body of her dead son, the marks of a lynch rope around his neck. After 1939 New York and Chicago exhibitions, the piece was returned to him in such bad condition that he twisted off the heads and threw the bodies away.
Some of his best
Ironically, some of Barthe?s best-known pieces are not of blacks. He captured in stone Katharine Cornell in her immortal role as Juliet and John Gielgud as Hamlet. Helen Hayes and Laurence Olivier are on his long lists of VIP likenesses, often created by studying them at work, not in a studio.
"He had a photographic memory, I think,? says Esther Jones, his Pasadena landlady for the last ijine years.
?He could sculpt from memory To a small California following, he was simply "Barthe? (pronounced bar-tay). There was no firM n/ur^, no nickname, just an affection for'a man having financial and health problems in his final years.	I
?He was frustrated because le did the eagle on the Social Security Building in Washington, and he nevtr received a Social Security check,?. Mrs. Jones says. ?He found benefactors in later years.?	j
His sister says one of them was James Gamer. The famous actor, who had commissioned Barthe to do sculptures of his family, later paid for nurses as Barthe?s health rapidly declined from cancer. The sculptor?s family treasures a photograph of the two men together.
Mixed reviews
?Barthe is missed,? Mrs. Jones says. "He was sensitive and gentle, and a person with very definite opinions. ?I didn?t see him go to church much, but he had a deep spiritualism.
?Barthe didn?t see himself as rare and different. ?
Numerous art critics and books say j otherwise, though Barthe was not j without bad reviews. Norman Rae, a : Jamaican critic, called him ?a very fine sculptor indeed,? but not before they had chided each other.	,
"I do not write this to complain of (Rae?s) review of my work," Barthe wrote. ?I am out of his reach. His not liking my work will not cause me to become discouraged. I know enough about art to judge my work for myself. If I do a good piece, I know it is good. Also, if I do a bad piece, I know why it is bad.? ..	j
?	Though the letter to the editor shows Barthe had some sense of worth, he never ceased to be surprised at the honors poured on him later in life.
Honors of note
Such was the case in 1977 when the University of Southern Mississippi added two of his bronzes to its art collection and sent him a plane ticket to Hattiesburg for the acceptance.
"I expected to enjoy the trip, but I was not prepared for what occurred at the ceremonies,? he later wrote. ?First, 1 was welcomed by the Afro-American Society and presented with a bronze plaque of appreciation. The next speaker was the president of the university with an even larger plaque.
?Then the mayor offered me the key to the city. After this a representative of the governor read a letter welcoming me in the name of the people of the state.?
Barthe?s California friends say he often pointed out his Mississippi roots.
?He spoke of that place with great pride,? Mrs. Jones says. "You know, a lot of blacks from the South woulc hide that.?	^