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Shoestring
Board Profile:
KEN BARTON
 Shoestring board member Ken Barton has a long history
with the Bailey Avenue neighborhood. It used to be his
own.
Ken
grew up on Idlewild and Glendale Streets, very close
to Wells United Methodist Church. He attended Galloway
Elementary and Enochs Jr. High before graduating from Central
High School. Ken then went on to Millsaps College, graduating
in 1970, and Ole Miss law school, where he was editor-in-chief
of the law review. He returned home after graduation to
work at the law firm of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada,
one of Mississippi’s oldest and most prestigious
law firms. It was the only firm with whom the young law
student interviewed.
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“I had thought about maybe going into an
academic career, which most likely would have taken me somewhere
other than Mississippi,” recalls Barton. “But in
the end, after I decided on law, I was pretty committed to staying
here. At Butler Snow, about 10 of the 16 lawyers at the time
had been editor of their school’s law review, so it seemed
like a good place to be.”
Ken
looks back on his childhood as a simpler time and place. “Our
street was a gravel street,” he remembers. “It was
a big deal when they paved it, because you could rollerskate
on it.”
The
neighborhood was all-white at the time, but it was separated
from the black neighborhoods by only a few hundred
yards—and
a small creek. This creek was not bridged by any street; it literally
segregated the two cultures.
“We’d occasionally play baseball with
some of the African-American kids, but it was rare,” Barton
says. “This was right
before the civil rights movement really took off.”
The demographics
of the neighborhood have changed dramatically since that time,
but Ken says he still sees a lot of the same
qualities in the people who live there.
“It’s still mostly working families who are trying to make
a living for themselves and their loved ones,” he says.
He praises the role of Operation Shoestring in helping keep the
neighborhood strong.
“I’ve been familiar with Operation
Shoestring for many years,” Barton
says, “especially since it was founded in the basement
of Wells Church, where I grew up. I saw that Shoestring was trying
to address issues that exist not only in this neighborhood, but
across the city, state, and the nation: single-parent homes,
kids growing up without the influence of a father. There’s
a need to help these families help themselves.”
Barton
praises the people at Operation Shoestring for their work. “From
the time I got involved, I’ve been very impressed with
Robert Langford and the people who manage the programs. I also
have enjoyed getting to know the other board members, all of
whom really put in time and effort to help make Shoestring better.
The board and staff’s enthusiasm for the kids gets me fired
up and makes me want to do and contribute more.”
The
Barton contribution is already pretty great. In addition to
Ken’s
service on the board, his wife Lea – one
of the most acclaimed working artists in Mississippi – has
served as an art instructor at Shoestring (see the April 2005
edition of this newsletter). When not working or cycling (“a
passion”), Ken likes to travel and visit art museums with
Lea. Occasionally she even lets him help her with her work, “usually
by stretching a canvas,” he says with a laugh.
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