To the Editor,

Once again The Creator has seen fit for me to not be aware that a great elder among the Lumbee had passed. I just learned recently when I saw a newspaper dated August 6th that Bruce Barton had passed.

Bruce was a personal friend. He was a gentleman of strong character and conviction with a passion for the Lumbee that knew no parallel.

His was the greatest form of intellect. He was a man who acquired knowledge and then sought to impart it to those around him for the advancement of all.

He was opinionated, non-conventional, non-conformist and argumentative. As people who have undergone oppression and who have been marginalized, the Lumbee were blessed to have a man of such free mind advocating for a free press. Mavericks like Bruce are generally few and often ostracized.

Bruce knew his mission and pursued in with every beat of his heart. He chronicled and made history for the Lumbee. He intellectually sired myself and a whole herd of offspring who would not exist were it not for his heroic pursuit of truth, justice and the free press.

I know Bruce is editing what I am writing here and I know he is editorializing it with Julian Pierce, Florence and Julian Ransom, Helen Scheirbeck, Ken Maynor, Ray Littleturtle, Adolph Dial and English Jones, just to name a few. I simply hope Bruce is pleased with how I have described such a life well led and vigorously loved.

No one shall have the last word on Bruce Barton. Bruce’s words stand for themselves and for the great man and mind from which they pointedly edged. Points aren’t bad things though, because when something has a point to it, it can be firmly planted to stand on its own.

Farewell my friend and fellow Lumbee bard.

Eric R. Locklear

Fayetteville