Wyes 'Garden Show' Host Marta Lamar Is Dead At 94
Times Picayune 12-11-1996

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Fought to block Uptown bridge Marta Lamar, a civic activist and for two
decades the host of a popular gardening program on WYES-TV, died Friday in Ann
Arbor, Mich. She was 94.

Mrs. Lamar had lived in Ann Arbor, where her daughter lives, since 1988.

Although Mrs. Lamar was active in good-government crusades and the fight to
block a Mississippi River bridge proposed for Uptown New Orleans, she was best
known for "The Garden Show," a weekly half-hour broadcast that ran on WYES
from 1959 to 1979 and later was shown on 74 other public TV stations
throughout the South.

"Marta forgot more about horticulture than most of us ever knew," said Betty
Bagert, her producer from 1970 to 1979. "She was a wonderfully talented lady
with a great knowledge of not just how to grow things but of how to tell you
if you had grown them properly."

Mrs. Lamar's loyal viewers made their numbers known whenever she offered free
products and booklets on her Sunday afternoon show. "When we offered material
to viewers, sometimes over 1,000 pieces of mail would come in from a week's
show," Bagert said.

She also wrote a gardening column for The Times-Picayune. She achieved a
master rating as a flower-show judge and was an accredited instructor in
horticulture. An award bearing her name was established by the Federated
Council of New Orleans Garden Clubs.

Mrs. Lamar was born Marta Elizabeth Barnes in Bonham, Texas, in 1902. After
graduating from the University of Texas in 1923, she moved to New York, where
she became one of the first women to write advertising copy, said Jacqueline
Leonhard, a longtime friend.

She started as a secretary at an advertising agency but expressed interest in
writing copy, her daughter said. Because this was then an all-male field, her
boss encouraged her to write anonymously to build a portfolio before trying
for a job.

She broke her silence in an article in a trade publication "saying it was
about time for women to write advertising copy, since many of the things they
were writing about were women's products," Leonhard said. "They almost fired
her until they did some market research and found she was right."

After marrying Lucius Mirabeau Lamar III in 1926, she lived in San Antonio and
Houston before moving to Dallas, where she was a copywriter for Neiman-Marcus.
Her husband, a vice president of the California Co., an oil firm, was
transferred to New Orleans in 1941.

Besides polishing her botanical skills, Mrs. Lamar became involved in New
Orleans in drives for causes such as the public library, the New Orleans
Symphony and better schools. In 1948, she was part of a group of women dubbed
"Les Girls" who helped Leonhard win a seat on the Orleans Parish School Board.

Besides opposing the Uptown bridge, Mrs. Lamar also fought a proposal to build
a riverfront expressway through the French Quarter.

"She was a woman ahead of her time," Leonhard said. "She was torn because she
was a Southern lady, yet she felt women should be more involved in community
activities."

After her husband's death in 1978, Mrs. Lamar moved to Austin, Texas, and then
to Ann Arbor.

Survivors include her daughter, Barbara Lamar; a son, Lucius M. Lamar IV of
Nashville, Tenn.; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

A funeral was held Monday in Ann Arbor. A private memorial service will be
held in San Antonio, where she will be buried.