![]() “He saw that and said, ‘Well, here I am,’” she said. In the late 1960s, The Denver Post wrote an article with a large photo of Barker dressed as Buster Brown asking, “Where are you today?” Baker recalled. So, he did.”īaker contends her father became a true cowboy in every sense of the word.īaker said she grew up under the rule that she was not to speak of her father’s former persona.īarker’s distaste for his former life as Buster Brown was so great he threw away much of the memorabilia he had, Baker said. “We have always said that Snake River is the last frontier,” she said. “The strange thing is that he and my mother would nearly starve to death, so he would go back in the Army,” Baker said.ĭespite traveling the country during his service in the Army Reserves, Baker said her father always looked forward to returning to the place he loved. ![]() In 1940, he returned to active service in the Army for five years. They settled on a homestead in the Little Snake River Valley. In 1923, Barker traveled west on horseback with his new bride, Virginia, over the Rocky Mountains and into the Yampa Valley. He attended the academy until he enlisted in the Army at the onset of World War I.Īfter being discharged from the service in 1919, he returned to the academy and graduated in 1920. ![]() The young Barker made his last appearance as Buster Brown in 1913 and soon after, he enlisted in Western Military Academy. “The only friend he had was Tige, the dog.ĭuring a Buster Brown roaming promotional tour, Barker caught his first up-close glimpse of the Wild West and the cowboy lifestyle.Īnd as his distain for the life of impersonating Buster Brown grew, his desire to become a cowboy burned brighter, Baker said. “All the boys, in those days, made fun of him,” Baker said. Of course, he made fun of it, that he danced and sang, and he said it was pretty bad.”įor about seven years, he donned Buster’s signature outfit and traveled the nation performing in advertising shows. “She just had to make a living, and she saw in him what he didn’t see in himself, which is that he could have been a very bright child star,” Baker said. When Brown Shoe Company began to look for a look-a-like for the Buster Brown cartoon character in 1906, his mother pushed Barker into the limelight. The young Barker was forced to comply with his mother’s wishes to sit, walk and speak in a certain and often rigid way, Baker said. His mother, who worked for the Brown Shoe Company, was restrictive and demanding of her son. Jan Gerber, assistant museum director, said she hopes to accomplish that goal by publishing a book this December about both parts of Barker’s life compiled from his memoirs and his daughter’s writing.īaker said she couldn’t resist sharing her father’s “fascinating” journey from “a little boy in velvet and lace to a cowboy that can walk in spurs and manure.”īarker was born in 1899 in Framingham, Mass.īaker said her father didn’t receive any formal education.īarker had a “very unhappy” childhood, Baker said. He died in 1976.Īlthough his memory lives on with friends, family and those familiar with the Buster character, Baker and the Museum of Northwest Colorado began a project more than a year ago in hopes of re-telling his story to a new generation. Instead, his heart lay in the West, and he longed to be a true cowboy, Baker said.Īfter stepping aside as Buster Brown, Barker moved to the Little Snake River Valley in Wyoming, and fulfilled his dream of being a cowboy. ![]() He was forced into the Buster role by his mother, she added. “He was a very nice looking little boy, and he could sort of sing and dance well enough to satisfy the kids.įor most of his youth, Barker traveled the country impersonating Buster Brown.īut, he didn’t much care for the frilly lace, satin and velvet he was forced to wear as the character, his daughter said. “Dick, my dad, had long golden curls,” said Barb Baker, 81, a longtime Craig resident and Barker’s daughter.
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