Yes, he was actually quite social, from what I've heard. Gretrude Barnstone told me about how she and Howard would stop to visit with him whenever they went down that way. And I have a letter sent from a mutual friend to Jack Boynton in abt 1960, describing how she drove Gene Charlton (who had been close to Bess around 1940, before Charlton moved away to NYC and then Rome) down there for a night of talking - her job, she said, was to pour the drinks and tend to the customers who came to Bess to buy bait. And in the mid-1960s, at the time he was having an exhibition in Houston, Bess got into a quite amusing newspaper feud with Campbell Gielsin (sp?), who was then the art critic for one of the newspapers. Bess knew how to hold his own.
I am surprised at his receiving many visitors when he was back in Bay City. Nice to know a little more about him.
Yes, he was actually quite social, from what I've heard. Gretrude Barnstone told me about how she and Howard would stop to visit with him whenever they went down that way. And I have a letter sent from a mutual friend to Jack Boynton in abt 1960, describing how she drove Gene Charlton (who had been close to Bess around 1940, before Charlton moved away to NYC and then Rome) down there for a night of talking - her job, she said, was to pour the drinks and tend to the customers who came to Bess to buy bait. And in the mid-1960s, at the time he was having an exhibition in Houston, Bess got into a quite amusing newspaper feud with Campbell Gielsin (sp?), who was then the art critic for one of the newspapers. Bess knew how to hold his own.