Jim "Barney" Barnes, 1943-2007: Seafair clown brought joy to the ill, lonely

There's a story Patty Shepherd-Barnes loves to share about her husband, Barney. It was about 35 years ago, when he would visit Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, which he did for decades as a Seafair clown.

A young girl was hospitalized, and no matter who tried coaxing her -- doctors, nurses, her parents -- the girl wouldn't speak.

	Jim "Barney" Barnes was a Seafair clown for 42 years.

Jim "Barney" Barnes would drive the Seafair clowns' old fire truck to visit her, wearing face paint and his signature orange-and-green cornucopia hat. After weeks of his visits, the girl built trust in Barnes' gentle demeanor and broke her silence by saying she wanted to ring the truck's bell, as he'd offered.

"He wasn't over-the-top aggressive as a clown," said Barnes' stepdaughter, Shannon Hofmeister, adding that the girl later recovered. "He had an amazing way to make people open up on their terms."

Barnes, a 42-year Seafair clown who smiled his way into thousands of Seattleites' memories, died Oct. 1 after a four year battle with cancer. He was 64.

Born in Seattle in September 1943, Barnes enrolled at Seattle University after graduating from O'Dea High School. As a Chieftain, family said, he planned more social events than study groups and got an early start on his commercial real estate career, renting rooms to college buddies in a house fondly called "The Sugar Shack."

He later opened Royal Real Estate during a career that lasted four decades.

But his passion was being a Seafair clown -- a position with which he brought joy to people who were lonely and sick. While fellow clowns passed out handfuls of candy, children would beg to get one piece from Barnes.

"He would make them say 'please,' " said Shepherd-Barnes, his second wife. "That's what he was trying to teach people."

Though he battled cancer through radiation and chemotherapy treatments, last year's Torchlight Parade was the first Barnes had missed since becoming a Seafair clown.

Hofmeister said he was a wonderful father to her and two other children from Shepherd-Barnes' previous marriage.

Family also said he loved taking his two children from his first marriage to the former Longacres racetrack, where they would spend their Saturdays with maple bars and hot chocolate.

"People would always get excited just to see him," Hofmeister said of Barnes, whose memorial is Monday at St. James Cathedral. "He was amazing, not just as a clown, but with everything he did."