Rock City barn painter Byers, 89, dies

<p>Clark Byers, who braved charging bulls, slippery roofs and lightning bolts to paint See Rock City on barns across the South for three decades, died this week. He was 89.</p><p>The Trenton, Ga., man had been in failing health for months, friends said.</p><p>A native of Flat Rock, Ala., Byers worked in his youth at a cotton mill and later bottled buttermilk at a Rossville dairy. He was the original owner and developer of Sequoyah Caverns.</p><p>But most will remember him as the man who transformed rural barns into roadside advertisements that urged motorists to See Rock City, a tourist attraction at Lookout Mountain, Tenn.</p><p>By the time of his retirement in 1969, he had painted some 900 barns in 19 states with catchy slogans such as, To miss Rock City would be a pity.</p><p>The painters promotional signs marked a milestone in the nations tourism history, according to Bill Chapin, 50, president of See Rock City Inc. and the great-nephew of the attractions founder, Garnet Carter.</p><p>Clark Byers was instrumental in creating a lasting legacy for Rock City Gardens and in implementing Garnet Carters marketing genius, he said. Clark, literally and figuratively, enhanced the landscape of America.</p><p>Armed with gallons of black paint that he said was practically fade-free, Mr. Byers first went on the road in 1937, offering free barn painting to farmers who also got Rock City souvenirs for giving their permission.</p><p>He never used stencils to apply the message, but sketched the words in chalk before filling in the letters with white. Once he did six barns in a single day, but later missed a whole year of work when he nearly was electrocuted after a power line fell on a metal barn roof he was painting.</p><p>His hand-painted signs withstood the elements well, according to Jerry Cannon of Chattanooga, 43, a Rock City barn painter since 1993. I met Mr. Byers a few times, he said. He always told me, Keep splashing that paint on. He thought it (the paint job) should last.</p><p>Funeral services were 2 p.m. Friday at Moore Funeral Home in Trenton, Ga.</p>

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