Clinton Berry

The seventh of eight children, Clinton Lambert “Butch” Berry was born in a car on the Missouri River Bridge on the way to the closest hospital on August 11, 1953. Closest is relative when you grew up in the Missouri Ozarks on a farm that was almost thirty miles from the nearest town. After going to graduate school at Illinois State University, Clinton lived for nine years in New York City working in a gallery, and as a chef while studying and perusing a career as an artist and performing on Broadway. They say if you live in New York City for ten years you will never live anywhere else. Not willing to make that kind of a commitment, Clinton accepted a position with a Norwegian shipping company working for one of their passenger lines, Royal Viking.

For the next six years the schedule was six months on the ships, three months off, and three months at the corporate offices in Oslo, Norway. During those six years, Clinton visited every continent, most many times. He liked to say that if a country has a coast he has been there, and because his duties included shore excursions he was fortunate enough to see the interior of most. Including crossing South America from Lima, Peru, to Machu, Picchu, crossing the Andes, down the Amazon, and ending up touring Patagonia before flying from Buenos Aires with passengers back to Miami.

Family obligations required some rethinking and after returning, yet again, to graduate school at the University of Missouri-Columbia for one more degree, Clinton accepted a position at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, in 1996, as a research analyst in the university library. After living and traveling all over the world, Clinton was proud to call St. Louis his home. The city is close enough to the old farm he grew up on to spend weekends helping with cattle and hay while offering access to world class cultural institutions, beautiful neighborhoods with some amazing architecture and, most importantly, some of the best restaurants anywhere, and Clinton has vowed to try them all (some many times over and over).

His artistic accomplishments are astonishing. His work is represented in Compônere Gallery, St. Louis, MO 2000 - present
Earthworks, New York, NY 1988
A Show of Hands, New York, NY 1988
Clinton also has gallery representation in Illinois and Kentucky.
His work is and has been exhibited in over 40 shows spread across the entire globe.

Clinton passed away in his home on Friday, July 13, 2018, of natural causes. He was preceded in death by his father, Otto Berry, his mother, Reatha (Ferguson) Berry, two sisters, Phyllis Ann Rhodes and an infant sister, Mary Priscella Berry, two nieces and two nephews.

He is survived by two brothers, Charles Berry and his wife, Shirly, of Easton, Missouri, and Mark Berry and his wife, Julie, of Mountain Grove, Missouri, three sisters, Evelyn Kincaid and Richard Caudron of Nixa, Missouri, Wanda Addeline “Pat” and Russell “Cleon” Plaster of Fair Grove, Missouri, and Virginia Gale Robertson of Mountain Grove, Missouri, fifteen nieces and nephews, 31 great-nieces and great-nephews, many loved cousins, and precious friends.