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Richmond Barthe receives a key to the city of Bay St. Louis from Mayor John Scafidi while Powell Glass, Jr. looks on. Barthe's gift to city at left. (Picture, courtesy of "The Sea Coast Echo".)
lississippi Town Welcomes Native Negro Artist BartheT
Whenever some magazine runs a reader column entitled, ?The picture ili.it got away,? then we will submit a classic: our local chief of police and his assistant who investigated a possible race rally of sorts at our Seminary, and ?tayed on 10 serve punch to a group of about 200 Negro and white citizens nf Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. At a tune when the name ?Mississippi? ipelled Schweiner, Chaney and Goodman this picture and the accompanying ? lory might have cautioned derogatory jcneralizations about the State and its citizens.
The occasion was a reception given to Richmond Barthe, native sculptor, painter, author on August 11 of this ic.ir. Very Rev. John Gasper, S.V.D., Rector of the Seminary, gave the welcome. Master of ceremonies was F?nuell Glass, Jr., President of the Hancock County Chamber of Com-?nrrce. Mayor John Scafidi accorded Hmhe the town?s highest acclaim by -resenting him a key to the city in 'nognition of his accomplishments.
Barthe, who has lived in Jamaica 1 biicc 1947, told a throng of white and j Vcsro admirers assembled for the oc-f /anon in the parlor of St. Augustine?s ' Vminary that his visit this year to the j. t nitcd States was a ?sentimental t ^njrncy? and his gleanings from it ??Hild take a good 50 years to trans-p*' mto art.
This is his first visit to Bay St. Louis m 10 years and it follows the arrival ? rarly summer of his gift to his native <f. of a piece of his work. He felt that
his hometown should have a sample of his sculpture and when he learned that Mrs. Thelma Heller, daughter of Mrs. Katherine Wilson, librarian at City-County Memorial Library, was also living in Jamaica he chose her as his subject for a permanent gift to the city.
Mrs. R. A. Stienmayer, chairman of the library board, expressed appreciation of that institution for his gift at the ceremony. Plans for Barthe?s reception were initiated by Mrs. Katherine Wilson and the library board to afford local people an opportunity to meet Barthe and hear him explain some of his works, photographs of which were on display.
The artist expressed profound appreciation for the occasion and spoke of his philosophy of applied religion, citing Biblical phrases of ?ask and you shall receive ... as a man thinks, so is he? as his basis of living. He told the group he wished his mother, who died in 1948, and Miss Josie \\ elch, who used to run a shop on the beach here, could have shared the occasion.
Barthe feels that his best work lies ahead. The artist is presently engaged in writing four or five books: his autobiography; his philosophy of life; a book of fairy talcs, and a collection of his favorite anecdotes and sayings. These books will tell soul searchers much about Barthe. They will return to his sculptures and paintings, however, for inspiration that speaks of genius and God?s greatest gift to Barthe.