Guitar, art embellished black granite monument pays tribute to man, music

By MARGARET TOAL
March, 31, 2009
No one now will miss the grave of Grammy-winner Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.
His family and friends gathered Tuesday morning to unveil a custom-designed tombstone of polished black granite with a cutout of his trademark Gibson Firebird guitar. The marker includes a ceramic version of a painting of the musician along with his quote:
"I won't limit myself to one type of music. There's a lot of universe out there, and what is the universe-music!"
Though Brown won a Grammy in 1982 for best blues, he hated being labeled as a musician. He described himself as playing "American music, Texas style" and combined jazz, blues, country, Cajun, zydeco and R&B into a unique blend.
Brown's grave had gone unmarked since his burial Sept. 17, 2005. The marker is up in time for his birthday, April 18.
Next for the gravesite will be a Texas historical marker, which has been approved by the Texas Historical Commission without the usual 10-year waiting period. The bronze marker should be ready for installation in about a year.
Brown was born in Vinton, La., in 1924 and moved with his parents to Orange when he was weeks old. He grew up in Orange in a musical family with his parents and siblings playing a variety of instruments.
His daughter, Celeste Bile of California, designed the marker. She included a ceramic copy of a painting of Brown by artist Dianne Russell.
She said Russell contacted her after Brown's death and gave her a copy of the painting. Then, Bile asked Russell's permission to use the image on the marker. "She was absolutely over the moon" about the painting being used, Bile said of the artist's reaction.
Though Brown grew up by the Sabine River and the swamps of the Texas-Louisiana border, he also lived for years in New Mexico, where Bile grew up with him. She said she likes the Russell painting because of its southwest colors, including the sunset.
Also attending a short ceremony were Brown's daughter, Ursula Brown of Baytown, and his son, Dwayne Brown of Oklahoma City, a musician who plays under the name of Casanova Brown.
Biles's sons, Jared McBayer, 21, and Nigel Biles, 14, of California also were at their grandfather's grave for the occasion.
Bobby Brown of Orange, the famous musician's last surviving sibling, wore a formal-style black suit with long jacket, and a spiffy black hat with a feather in the hatband. His children and grandchildren also were there.
Brown's above-ground concrete vault Tuesday had three new jars of different brands of grape jelly sitting on top. And Eric Demmer of Houston, who played saxophone with the Gatemouth Express band for 13 years, played the jazzy song "Grape Jelly."
The song is on Brown's "Back to Bogalusa" CD produced on the Verve label in 2001. Demmer said he wrote the song for Brown, who liked to eat grape jelly on everything.
"If he was eating spaghetti, he was eating grape jelly on it," Demmer said, adding that Brown would ask for grape jelly anywhere "from a truck stop to a fancy restaurant."
This past summer, faded jars of grape jelly were sitting on top of the concrete at Brown's grave before Hurricane Ike hit on Sept. 13.
When it did, Brown's casket was one of 33 to float out of vaults during the flood surge, stopped by a fence at the cemetery not very far away. The jars of grape jelly stayed by the gravesite.
Jim Bateman, Brown's longtime manager, said Tuesday the musician would have joked about his "trip" in the storm.
Hurricanes haven't been kind to Brown. He died in Orange after evacuating from Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed his home in Slidell, La. A week after his burial, the eye of Hurricane Rita went through Orange and blew away the flowers and temporary marker at his grave.
Local educator Bob Finch replaced the temporary marker and started a fund a few months ago to get Brown a permanent marker. The family paid for the marker and Finch said money he raised will be used to help maintain the gravesite.