Topic: Walter Barnes and two others census as Entertainer -5 days before death

[Randy Meadows]

This census report is from April 18, 1940, 
Five days before he died....


Barnes was one of the victims of the Rhythm Club Fire in Natchez, Mississippi on April 23, 1940. He played in an eight-piece band that night when the club caught fire; he had the group continue playing the song "Marie" in order to keep the crowd from stampeding out of the building. Nearly all of the band's members (which included Paul Stott and vocalist Juanita Avery) except for drummer Walter Brown and bassist Arthur Edward, were among the 201 victims of the fire. Barnes's death was repeatedly immortalized in song thereafter.