of Helena, AR

May 3, 1947 - December 21, 2024

Stephen Lloyd Barker, 77, a lover of history and an outdoorsman long known for the artisanal offerings of his ''Silver Threads'' shop close by Memphis, Tennessee, died the night of Dec. 20-21 at home across the Mississippi in Helena, Arkansas.

He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on Derby Day, May 3, 1947, to the Rev. Dr. Lloyd Barker and Martha Jane Hequembourg Barker. His father had been Chaplain (Major) of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's Supreme Allied Command in Europe during World War II, and later was senior pastor in churches in a variety of different states until 1960, when he was called to a large Southern Baptist church in the Evergreen district of Memphis. Stephen was 13 when the family moved there.

He went to Central High School and, as a tenor in the school chorus, was admired for his musical talent, inherited from his father, who could compose and improvise. Stephen went on to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he became a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and made lifelong friendships. Known for his ability to quote famous dramatists, poets, essayists, and historians, he was sometimes asked for help in writing papers by fraternity brothers who said they were willing to pay and were undeterred by learning that an A would cost more than a B, and a B more than a C.

After college, his wide-ranging interests took him to Mexico, where he got to know magicians, actors, artisanal weavers, writers, and painters, and silversmiths, notably experts in the art of silver design representing the estate of the renowned William Spratling.

It was at an art show on Front Street in Memphis that he met the love of his life, Lisa Russell Kurts, who lived in a condominium overlooking the Mississippi and long owned and ran a distinguished art gallery bearing her name. Their relationship deepened and continued over 28 years, until a long illness took her life in 2011.

Stephen then moved to the Lisa's family home in Helena where her sister, Dana Russell Kurts, lived, because she needed a caregiver. Over the next decade and more, he introduced her to his outdoorsman's enthusiasms flyfishing and eagle-watching among them and let her help him take care of two horses and cattle on the family farm. He loved hunting quail with bird dogs in the rolling plains of Texas and in Mississippi and Tennessee. She loved animals as much as he did.

Stephen cared deeply about his church, St. John's Episcopal, and, like his father, about civil rights and racial justice, for which he campaigned politically. He and his brother, Douglas Harvey Barker, were very close, and Stephen grew up devoted to their maternal grandparents, Frank Douglas Hequembourg and Augusta May McCaughan Hequembourg. To all who knew him, Stephen was a warm and ingratiating presence.

It was Lisa's sister, Dana Kurts, who discovered that Stephen had not awoken on the morning of Dec. 21. That day, stricken, she described him as ''my rock, my everything.''

One of his closest friends, Patrick Foley, wrote these verses about his passing:

He came down upon a Derby Day clear,

With Janie, his mother, he had no fear.

He departed the dark December night

Of Winter Solstice to join the Light.

Dana Kurts survives him, as do his brother, Douglas Harvey Barker, and his sons David Douglas Barker and Scott Michael Barker; and Martha Jane Barker Turley, Stephen's sister, and her son, John Rayner Turley.

Stephen Lloyd Barker's funeral service will be held at 11:00 A.M. Saturday, Jan. 4, at St. John's Episcopal Church, 625 Pecan St., Helena, AR 72342.
Burial will follow the service at Maple Hill Cemetery, 1801 Holly Street, Helena 72342.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to St. John's Episcopal Church, P. O. Box 770, Helena AR 72342 or to a charity of the donor's choice.

Flowers may be sent to Roller Funeral Home, 508 Plaza Ave., West Helena, AR 72390 (Tel. 870-572-2571) for placement at the cemetery.

By Craig R. Whitney

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