Person Page 3,394

This family information per Brown/Davis/Kitzmiller/Hall/McLaughlin/Klotz/Yokum/Smith Family Tree genealogy prepared by fm1930, online at ancestry.com.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - Daily Independent Journal; San Rafael, California; Saturday, February 7, 1959; Page 16 (Newspapers.com)

MARIN ET CETERA, By Harry Craft

'Dean Of Real Estate' Barnwell Had Another Side -- His Acting

BY THE TIME this appears, my neighbors down the block, Clyde and Harriet Barnwell, will have moved away from Marin County for good, to retire in Santa Monica.

We are sorry to see them leave. As neighbors they were among the nicest we have ever known, and the block won't be quite the same. Even our dog Lassie will miss them. She was always welcome in their home and they treated her with kindness and affection in spite of her peculiar ways.

The Barnwells had been a part of Marin County since 1931. Clyde was a real estate broker and appraiser of the type whose sense of ethics exceeded his desire for personal gain. Among other brokers he was sometimes referred to as "the dean of Marin real estate men."

THE TITLE was bestowed no doubt as a result of the years he had spent in almost every phase of the business. He made his first sale back in 1905 in Los Angeles, long before that city hit the jackpot in 35 mm. film. He was only 19 at the time.

Later he became a broker in the San Joaquin Valley and subsequently moved to San Francisco. There he was sales manager for several of the downtown firms engaged in commercial and industrial sales and property management. In Marin he set up his own office, was a member of the Real Estate Board.

There was another side to Clyde Barnwell -- a part of him that had nothing to do with real estate.

HE WAS AN ACTOR of no mean talent, both in amateur and professional circles. It has been all of 15 years since he last played a role with the Ross Valley Players, but he may still be remembered for his appearance as the "heavy" in such plays as "Hazel Kirke," "Night Over Taos," and "The World We Live In." He also performed in Mountain Play productions and his deep voice carried to the farthest extremities of the amphitheater.

Until recently his narration of the "Story of the Crucifixion" was an annual Eastertime radio broadcast on NBC -- a beautiful presentation which he himself had written.

His close resemblance to the late George Arliss was startling. Often he found it difficult to convince people he was not the renowned actor of stage and screen. A make-up man from Hollywood who prepared Clyde for the part of Sam Brannan in the San Francisco Century of Progress Pageant in 1935 swore by all his grease paint that the finished Brannan had turned out to be Disraeli as Arliss had portrayed him.

CLYDE RAN AWAY from his home in Tennessee at 13. More mature in appearance than his years and with a strong masculine voice he had little trouble in posing as an older youth. He almost made it into the Spanish American War -- had passed every test until a discerning medico observed the boyish, sensitive hands and guessed his true age.

Besides doing bit parts in theatricals, working as a bellhop and at any other job that came his way, he learned telegraphy and became an operator, pounding the key in old S.F. around 1902 and later in Los Angeles. He returned to San Francisco after the fire when the call went out for experienced telegraphers.

In World War I he entered the Army Signal Corps and was recommended for the Corps of Army Intelligence Police created by Congress. It was a group specially trained for counter-espionage and consisted mostly of policemen, newspapermen and attorneys.

Several years ago Clyde's eyesight started failing him. He also developed a nervous heart. This handicapped him in following a career in dramatics which he loved so well. But as he goes into retirement in Southern California there is no word of complaint. It was, he told me, a full and rich life he had led.

Clyde never did have an opportunity to play of Disraeli. It would have suited him well, for as I have known him it seems to me he has lived according to Disraeli's words:

"Circumstances are beyond the control of man -- but his conduct is in his own power."