Stephen G. Barbone

Stephen Gerard Barbone passed away on June 9 at the age of 91. He grew up in Flushing, NY, the son of the late Emilio Barbone and Dorothea Smith Barbone. His passion for Dixieland jazz began while he was a student at Bayside High School. He attended Duke University in Durham, NC, where he joined one of many jazz bands as principal clarinetist.

In1954 Steve joined the U.S. Army where and became a member of the 12th Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division. He served two years, 18 months of which was spent training in infantry heavy weapons in Coleman Kasserne in Gelnhausen, Germany.

After his discharge, Steve enrolled as a Business Major at Hofstra University in Garden City, NY, graduating with honors in 1959 and in 1962, he earned his Law Degree at New York Law School, again graduating with honors. He augmented his income in college and law school playing jazz in the South Hampton Dixie, Racing and Clambake Society and with the Kenny Butterfield Beale Street Stompers Jazz Band.

Steve married his wife, Martha Henahan Barbone, in 1962 and in 1963, moved to the Philadelphia area to pursue his career in sales in the management-training program of Olivetti-Underwood, a company that transferred him in 1964, to the San Francisco area where his children, Elizabeth Sharon and Michael Stephen were born.

In 1969, he returned to the Philadelphia region as a sales manager at Aamco, settling in Charter Chase in East Goshen, where he served on the community Board of Directors and on the East Goshen Zoning Hearing Board.

Steve later went to work for KD Tools in Lancaster as Sales Manager and was promoted to Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. In 1978, the family moved to a horse farm in Marshallton where he supported his wife’s equestrian and carriage driving activities, including acting as her navigator in competitions and serving on the Board of Directors for The Laurels Combined Driving Event.

In 1992, he formed his own Dixieland jazz band, The Mouldie Fig, later changing its name to The Barbone Street Jazz Band. He also played as a sideman in the Red Lion Jazz Band and at the Showboat Casino with Paul Grant’s New Orleans Swing. He traveled with Paul Grant to Eilat, Israel, with a New Orleans Jazz Band to perform at the Red Sea Jazz Festival.

During his musical career, his band also performed at the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in Wilmington, DE, The Berks Jazz Festival, The Central Delaware Jazz Festival, the West Chester University Jazz Festival as well as numerous regional concerts.

In 1999, he retired from the business world as the President of the Powertrain Division of Echlin, Inc, and that year he moved to Lower Oxford where he served on the Zoning Hearing Board.

He is survived by his wife, Martha and son, Michael.

Service and Interment Private. 

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to West Chester University School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA or the Brandywine Valley SPCA.