ROME ARTS HALL OF FAME 2017 Inductees

Barb Seaton is a native roman who graduated from RFA in 1976. She studied all forms of dance under John Hayes O’Neill, piano with Karen Mooney and flute with Nancy Cavaretta and Selma Moore. She graduated in 1980 from Upper Iowa University (UIU)

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cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Chemistry and Biology, hoping to attend Medical School. Instead, she continued her education at UIU while employed as Laboratory Manager for the Chemistry Department, culminating In a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Performance (Conducting) summa cum laude in 1989.

While at UIU, Barb directed the Concert Band for 6 years, music directed The Fantasticks for the college and worked on Fayette High School musicals.

After moving back to Central NY, she became involved in many community theater groups; The Talent Company, Theater 90, Rome Catholic School, Fort Stanwix

Barb Seaton is a native roman who graduated from RFA in 1976. She studied all forms of dance under John Hayes O’Neill, piano with Karen Mooney and flute with Nancy Cavaretta and Selma Moore. She graduated in 1980 from Upper Iowa University (UIU)

While at UIU, Barb directed the Concert Band for 6 years, music directed The Fantasticks for the college and worked on Fayette High School musicals.

After moving back to Central NY, she became involved in many community theater groups; The Talent Company, Theater 90, Rome Catholic School, Fort Stanwix

Elementary, Players of Utica, Hamilton College, Rome Choral Society, Rome Community Theater (RCT) and the Capitol Theatre as musician, music director, chorus coach, choreographer and actress. Barb became the director of the Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) Concert Band in 1995 and in 2004; she directed her first of many shows, The Sound of Music at RCT. She is a recipient of multiple Theater Association of New York State (TANYS) and Henry Awards for theater. Barb has recorded two CDs with La Banda Rossa as their principal piccolo player. She has served several terms as an officer and member of the governing boards of both RCT and the Capitol.

Barb has been a church musician all her life, directing choirs and instrumental ensembles in Fayette and West Union, Iowa; Auburn and Oneida, NY and served as an Interim Music Director for First United Methodist Church in Rome. In the real world, she is the Academic Technical Assistant/Laboratory Manager for MVCC’s Rome Campus Science labs where she is a member of the NYSUT and MVCCPA organizations. In 2003, she was honored for Excellence in Professional Service by the SUNY Chancellor.

Bill Bartell attended Rome schools, graduating from Rome Free Academy in 1952. At an early age he was influenced by his father, Ernest who was an accomplished trombonist and leader of the Rome Civic Band in the 1940s and 1950s. Bill served on the USS Midway and the USS Intrepid for four years as a proud member of the U.S. Navy Band.

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After the Navy and Western Kentucky University, Bill’s musical talents took him around the United States, playing the trombone with Jimmy McPartland and the Salt City Six, and in bands led by Hal McIntyre and Dean Hudson in all the great jazz venues from New Orleans to Chicago to New York City. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Bill played with most of the great Dixieland Jazz musicians in America.

At the age of 25 he recorded Dixieland at the Roundtable, on Roulette Records, with the Salt City Six at the Roundtable in New York City. On the album he plays long solos on “New Orleans”, “Indiana” and on Meredith Wilson’s “76 Trombones” from The Music Man. He can be heard on two other Vinyl albums recorded live in Rome; The Salt City Six Live at RFA in 1960 and the Milt Munn live album at the Savoy.

Bill continued playing part-time throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s in the Rome Civic Band, at the Capitol Theatre, the Elpines, the Colonial and Green Acres with the Salt City Six and other local groups with fellow musicians and Rome Arts Hall of Fame members Johnny Salerno and John Flaver. Bill was regarded by his peers as a masterful musician who made his trombone the life of the music and the party.

John Huckaby believed that by living every moment of life to the fullest, the latter years of a person’s life can be just as, or even more, productive than the years of their youth. Following US Navy service during World War II, the Korean conflict and Vietnam, he spent twenty-five years as an electrical engineer at Griffiss Air Force Base. Between World War II, and the Korean conflict, John began formal training in the visual arts by attending night classes at Long Beach California Academy of Art.

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John loved running and became a legend covering more than 25,000 miles in his running competitions. However, his running career came to an end when he suffered a heart attack while competing in the Canadian International Marathon in 1983.

He then returned to a passion from his youth and began art classes at the Rome Art and Community Center (RACC) where he met Rome Arts Hall of Fame member Jane Taylor who introduced him to mural painting. He painted a dozen murals (some as massive as 8’ x 16’), and twice as many smaller ones. Some of John’s murals can be seen locally in area churches, at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, the Rome Veterans Administration office and the Rome Sports Hall of Fame. Others are located in Wyoming and Hawaii. Subject matter for John’s murals ranges from Native American figures and scenes, to historic battle representations, to religious depictions.

John continued studying art for seventeen years at RACC and then taught for ten years at Rome’s Ava Dorfman Senior Citizens Civic Center. John wrote an autobiography at age 89 which is titled Truer Grit, “Incredible Huck”. Using his words: “Everything I do is 110 percent. I have received numerous awards and recognition for my murals and paintings. My work is a representation of what I see, feel and understand. It is the voice from my soul.” John Huckaby passed away on March 7, 2017 at the age of 95 just a few days after learning of his pending induction into the Rome Arts Hall of Fame.

Twyla Edwards was born in Virginia and raised on Bluegrass, Gospel, and Classical music. She began her career in education as a high school music teacher after graduating Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music Education (BME) degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 1977. She received a Masters of Arts in Music from Ithaca College in 1991.

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Kathleen (Chip) Haley holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri, a Bachelor’s degree in Government from the University of Maryland and Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii with concentration in communications planning. She held reporting positions in newspaper, radio and television in Virginia, Mississippi and Hawaii.

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Sara Landau is a native Roman who taught English as a Second Language for 30 years for the Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) and the Rome Public Schools. She was involved in Rome area theater groups as director, producer, costumer and stage manager. Additionally, she functioned as an acting coach and a student debate coach. She also served as an adjudicator for the Theater Association of New York State (TANYS).

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