City native, singer Leon Bibb dies at 93

Louisville native and Broadway actor, folk singer and civil rights activist Leon Bibb died Friday, Oct. 23, at 92 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

His daughter Amy Bibb Ford said her father died after a series of strokes.

Bibb, born on Feb. 7, 1922, grew up in Louisville, where Ford said everyone called him “Sonny” and attended Central High School. He then went to New York where he worked as an illustrator, according to Ford, but also make his Broadway debut in 1946 in “Annie Get Your Gun” as a chorus member. In 1967, he was in “A Hand Is on the Gate” with James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson and was nominated for a Tony Award.

In a revival of the musical “Carnival!,” he was part of a mixed-race couple playing Paul Berthalet, the puppeteer and love interest of the Lili, who was played by the white actress Victoria Mallory.

But Bibb also had a career as a folk singer performing at New York venues and the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. Through singing and his involvement with the civil rights movement, he performed with Joan Baez, Harry Bellefonte and Paul Robeson.

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Bibb received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Louisville in 1975 and was inducted into the Central High School Hall of Fame in 2006.

Despite his long life lived outside his hometown, he talked a lot about Louisville, where he began singing in churches as a young boy, and his great aunt, Addie Logan, according to Ford and his other daughter, Dorie Bibb Clay.

“She played the piano and encouraged him to sing,” Ford said.

Bibb’s nephew, Woodford “Woody" Porter Jr., CEO of A.D. Porter & Sons Funeral Home, said many of his cousins who sing received encouragement from their uncle.

Bibb was the last surviving sibling of his family, which included Porter’s mother Harriett Porter and Johnny Bibb and Ed Bibb.

Besides Clay and Ford, Bibb is survived by his son Eric, a Grammy-nominated musician who performed and recorded music with his father and lives in Stockholm, Sweden. Clay and Ford live in the Philadelphia area. Bibb also is survived by nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Bibb was twice divorced and leaves behind his long-time partner Christine Anton.

Porter said a portion of his cremains will be sprinkled in Louisville on the grave of his sister, Harriett Porter.

Reach reporter Elizabeth Kramer at (502) 582-4682 and ekramer@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter @arts_bureau and on Facebook at Elizabeth Kramer - Arts Writer.