Tears, Laughter at Fariña Tribute
By Beth Ashley, August 8, 2001
Excerpted from Marin Independent Journal
SAN FRANCISCO - A tear-stained memorial service for Bread and Roses founder Mimi Fariña ended yesterday afternoon in peals of laughter - Fariña's laughter.
Singer Judy Collins releases a dove at a reception following the memorial service for Mimi Fariña at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
The two-hour service, until then, had been laced with solemn speeches and heart-stopping music - joyful noise ("I'll Fly Away ") by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, "My Funny Valentine" by Boz Scaggs and a hushed, a capella rendering of "Bread & Roses" by old Fariña friends Judy Collins, Maria Muldaur and Holly Near.
Fariña's voice was heard, too, in recordings from her "Mimi Fariña Solo" album - "Quiet Joys of Brotherhood "- as family members filed into the cathedral; "Walk Me Around the Garden "as the service ended.
The crowd - which included show business stars and Fariña supporters such as Robin Williams and Kris Kristoffersen - listened raptly as tributes poured forth for Fariña, who died July 18 in her Mill Valley mountaintop home at the age of 56.
The Very Rev. Alan Jones, dean of the cathedral, praised her for "a quarter-century of love and service "as founder/leader of Bread & Roses, the charitable agency that provides free entertainment to people shut up in prisons, hospitals, nursing facilities and old people's homes.
Longtime colleague Lana Severn said the agency grew from what Fariña called "feelings that popped in me - that you don't have to preach and say anything, you just have to be there and make the music."
"She encouraged a generation to find the joys of singing and sharing," Severn said. "She gave performers the chance to get back to why they were performers in the first place."
Scaggs agreed, saying "Mimi reminded us that this gift we are given is really just that, and it is our duty and desire to give it back." He then launched into "Valentine, "which he had sung for the 25th anniversary celebration of Bread & Roses at the Opera House 1‡ years ago.
Two poems were read - one by Fariña's sister Joan Baez, and one written by Fariña herself.
Fariña's partner, Paul Liberatore, who called her "the spirit of grace, "said he found her poem after she died. It was accompanied by a drawing of a strong and beautiful dancer, holding a feather to the heavens:
"Follow me
"The wind, the eagle feather
"Follow me
"Let me lead
"Dance the cancer
"Relinquish the fear
"The sky will twirl open
"The sky will twirl open
"The sky will twirl open."
Liberatore said he will carry that vision of her, "brave, beautiful and graceful dancer, leading us once again, showing us the way, twirling the sky open."
Baez, who gave the final eulogy, said Fariña's illness had erased a lifelong vision of her as "little sister."
"She was so much more. She was everything more."
Baez spoke of weeping to Fariña on the phone, "You're in pain and I can't stand it." To which Fariña, with self-effacing humor, replied, "I think you're much more involved in this than I am." The cathedral audience burst into laughter.
Despite their years of interdependence, Baez said, "Mimi handled her life and her death by herself, very well."
Baez's poem:
"If, at storm's end
"The sun prances through your heart as it does mine
"Then all the catastrophic moments of this life will fade
"Past the here and now, to the trails of Tamalpais,
"Where we walked
"Amid where we will find again
"The heart's calm, the silent glade,
"And a meeting place for you and me
"Who came to know each other finally. "
The program also included eulogies by state Senate President John Burton and Bread & Roses executive Cassandra Flipper. Singer and composer Jackson Browne sang a song written especially for Fariña: "Don't You Want To Be There."
The service ended with Fariña's recorded laughter, which Rev. Jones had called "a barroom laugh."
Robin Williams thought it a splendid ending. "It worked," he said after the service. "It's still working - you just dropped your pen."
Comic Michael Pritchard said, "I did all right in the tears department until I heard her laugh."
"The very best part was the laughter," said longtime friend Gail Theller, head of Community Action Marin. "Mimi was right there."
After the service a reception was held in the sun-filled church patio, where food and drink were served and friends and family mingled to reminisce and smile.
Comic Wavy Gravy greeted old friends in his well-worn "funeral T-shirt" reading "Grief Be Far." Old Fariña colleagues - Carl Gottleib, Carol Androsky and Julie Payne - from the long-defunct comedy troupe The Committee - had flown up from Los Angeles. Baez's ex-husband David Harris and their son Gabe were there, as were dozens of friends from Marin and members of Fariña's family - father Albert Baez of Greenbrae, mother Joan Baez Sr. of Woodside, older sister Pauline Bryan of Carmel Valley, and cousin Skip Henderson of Greenbrae.
Everyone had a good word for Fariña.
Said Kristoffersen, "As we were driving here, I was thinking of the St. Francis prayer, that one that says 'Where there is hatred let me sow love,' and I thought of Mimi. She lived her life that way. She was completely good-hearted."