Josephine Baker dead

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33817, 14 April 1975, Page 17

Josephine Baker dead

C.V.Z P A -Reuter—Copyright) PARIS, April 13. ’ Josephine Baker, the poor black girl from the slums of St Louis who reigned as the star of sophisticated Paris music halls for more than half a century, had another, less glamorous, role: as adoptive mother to more than a dozen orphans from all over the world. Miss Baker, who died in a Paris hospital vesrerday at the age of .69. had just begun another campaign for support for her “Garden of; Children.” The svelte black star,; who first gained fame wearing only a belt of bananas,: high praise as usual.!

.“She is as fantastic as ever.” wrote one critic. The elegant Miss Baker, who used a jewelled microphone and wore designer clothes, was born into a family so poor that she began dancing barefoot because her parents could not, afford shoes. She began travelling with a dance troupe when she was 15, and did some shows in New York, where she was turned down by Broadway; promoters as “too ugly.” She moved to Paris and was quicklv snapped up by the Folies Bergere. She became famous as a singer and exotic dancer in France, and became a French citizen in 1937. France awarded her th»[Medal of the Legion of [Honour and the Rosette of; [the Resistance for her war-1 [time work in extracting ' secrets from an Italian dip-; i lomat.

In the 1950 s she bought a 300-acre estate and chateau in south central France and began adopting children [from every continent. Her two marriages produced no children of her own. [ She said her aim was to [bring up the children as one happy family to prove that “people of different races can live together in harmony if they wish.” Miss Baker’s “Garden of Children” cost her every penny of her fabulous earnings. The home, which at last count sheltered a dozen children. was often in trouble with debt collectors. Although she ’retired from show business in 1956, Miss Baker staged a series lof come-backs to pay the ; bills, travelling around the : world singing intimate songs 'in six languages.