Josephine Baker's farewell is part of her legend.
Between 1959 and 1968, in order to save her dear Milandes and feed her Arc-en-Ciel family, she returned to the stage several times, in particular at the Olympia.
She passed away on April 12, 1975 when she triumphed at Bobino, but her real last will undoubtedly remain, in history, the ceremony of her entry into the Pantheon.
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At the entrance to rue Soufflot, when the student airmen began to carry the cenotaph, the voice of the artist singing
Me back to Paris
, acted as madeleine de Proust in the hearts of those who, one day or more the other, saw her on stage. They felt a few decades younger.
It is on this refrain or on verses around this theme that she used to leap onto a plate, covered with feathers and egrets.
The points in common with a premiere at the music hall at a time when giant screens did not exist, were not lacking: fans outside behind barriers welcoming the arrival of a celebrity, a huge red carpet, rue Soufflot, which reminded the oldest of the decor of the entrance hall of a performance hall, on evenings reserved for an All-Paris, in a tuxedo and long dress.
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At the Pantheon, the traditional evening dress was not however de rigueur, and not only because the 90 minutes of this national tribute took place at the end of the afternoon.
In the nave and the stands all the colors and all the layers of society rubbed shoulders: representatives of the institutional, military and cultural authorities, actors, directors, writers as well as a hundred anonymous people chosen by lot. among those who had written to the Presidency of the Republic.
Dancer, singer, resistance fighter and activist, all the faces of Joséphine Baker are displayed on the facade of the Pantheon.
POOL / REUTERS
Her cenotaph - a coffin not containing the remains, remained in the family vault -, carried by soldiers of the Air Force of which she was a second lieutenant, entered the dome of the Pantheon around 6.30 p.m.
"My France is Josephine"
, launched Emmanuel Macron, greeting a committed woman who wanted
"to prove to the world that skin colors, origins, religions could not only coexist but live in harmony"
.
“Its cause was universalism, the unity of mankind. The equality of all before the identity of each. Hospitality for all the differences united by the same will, the same dignity. Emancipation against summons ”
, added the President of the Republic.
Despite the presence of a mask on which their mother's head had been imprinted, the emotion was truly palpable on the faces of Josephine's ten children.
“We are living an exceptional moment because she was an exceptional woman
, reacted to the Pantheon Akio Bouillon Baker, one of Joséphine's sons.
Mom would have been very happy. The pleasure was to see this audience outside, which was his audience. Mom represents all the forgotten in history. Mom's entry is that of all those working for a better world. ”
Prince Albert II, present alongside Joséphine's children, also very moved, no doubt thought of his mother, Princess Grace, who, after the expulsion of the Milandes, allowed the members of this "rainbow family to heaven ”to live in Monaco and continue their studies. She acted with her heart when she remembered that on November 30, 1951, the Hollywood actress she then was, witnessed Josephine's anger at the Stork Club in New York when a butler refused to let her know. serve because she was black. It was at the dawn of a crusade for universal brotherhood that the creator of
J'ai deux amours
began, without imagining for a single moment, what fate was going to reserve for her, day to day, 70 years later.
Brahim Baker, moved, with the mask on which appears his mother's smile.
SARAH MEYSSONNIER / REUTERS
