Civil rights champion and performer Leon Bibb turned 90 this week

Civil-rights champion and celebrated performer Leon Bibb turned 90 on Tuesday (February 7), a milestone year for the veteran singer and actor who shows no signs of slowing down.

Bibb, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, trained as a classical baritone singer in New York before making his first major theatre appearance in the original 1946 production of Annie Get Your Gun, alongside Ethel Merman.

He later branched into folk music, appearing at the inaugural Newport Folk Festival and as a member of the Skfflers with folk music legend Milt Okun.

He moved to Vancouver in 1969, and went on to put his indelible stamp on the B.C. arts scene, co-producing and appearing in a seven-month-long run of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the Vancouver Arts Club Theatre. His choral cantata, One More Stop on the Freedom Train, become a highlight of the Canada Pavilion during Expo ’86.

He founded A Step Ahead, an anti-racism school program and foundation in 1992, which, 20 years on, continues to present to elementary and secondary school students through the country.

Bibb, who remains a regular performer on the B.C. and national scene, is an inductee to the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, a recipient of the 2002 City of Vancouver Cultural Harmony Award, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, the Harry Jerome Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2009, he was made a Member of the Order of British Columbia. Last year, he received an honorary doctorate from UBC.