France Accords St. Louis-Born Josephine Baker Its Rarest Honor: Induction Into The French Panthéon

France Accords St. Louis-Born Josephine Baker Its Rarest Honor: Induction Into The French Panthéon

circa 1925: Portrait of American-born singer and dancer Josephine Baker (1906 - 1975) lying on a ... [+] tiger rug in a silk evening gown and diamond earrings. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Designated by French president Emmanuel Macron to be interred in France's Panthéon last August 21, the beautiful and beautifully outrageous Josephine Baker — the lithe Missouri-born American with the almond eyes and the thousand-watt smile who became Paris' own super-risque can-can girl, singer, dancer, artists' muse and original incendiary spirit of the Roaring Twenties — will be moved into the august chambers on November 30. When the going got tough under the Germans in Paris in 1940, Baker became a top spy for the French Resistance and as a result holds both the Croix de Guerre and is a chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur for extensive service in Europe and North Africa. The reason her remains will be moved into the august chambers on Tuesday, November 30, is that that is the date, in 1937, when she married French industrialist Jean Lion and became a citizen of France. She will lie in the Latin Quarter atop the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, in the massive building at the center of