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33 The Remarkable and Enigmatic Mr. Mignon The man known as François Mignon, said to have been born in France . . . was in fact born on May 9, 1899, in Cortland, New York, to Walter Fish Mineah and Mary Ella Mineah. —Oliver Ford, researcher All this happened more or less. —Opening line to Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five clementine hunter’s move to melrose plantation proved to be the most significant event in her life. Unquestionably, the second most important event occurred when François Mignon moved from New York City to live at the plantation. Mignon’s early recognition of Hunter’s art, coupled with his willingness to promote the artist and her work, set her on the road that took her from unknown domestic servant to one of the most celebrated self-taught African American artists. Mignon’s role in developing, encouraging, and promoting Hunter as an artist remains undisputed. Hunter held the brush, but Mignon owned the typewriter . He cleverly crafted the Hunter story, often with little regard for truth, and his words have been published and republished far and wide. His frequent disregard for facts notwithstanding, Mignon’s writings about Hunter remain the best source of material about the artist and her life. When François Mignon died, those close to him discovered that he had also carefully crafted the story of his own life. He adopted the name François Mignon, and he created his life’s story. Nothing explains his decision. The reason may never be known. chapter 4 34 Clementine Hunter Mignon Meets Cammie Henry In 1937 Lyle Saxon, the writer and famous Melrose guest, introduced Cammie Henry to François Mignon. Mignon was traveling in the South with his companion, Christian Belle, a native of France who worked in the French diplomatic corps. As a result of Saxon’s introduction, Henry, Mignon, and Belle became acquainted while on a pilgrimage to Natchez, Mississippi. Mignon and Belle traveled on to New Orleans with Saxon but stopped briefly at Melrose to visit Cammie Henry before returning to New York. Mignon was only forty years old, but his eyesight had begun to fail. Cammie Henry, obviously impressed with him, saw an opportunity to lend a helping Fig. 15. François Mignon, ca. 1972, holds a copy of his book Plantation Memo: Plantation Life in Louisiana. thomas n. whitehead. 35 The Remarkable and Enigmatic Mr. Mignon hand. She wrote numerous letters begging Mignon to leave New York City and come for an extended visit at Melrose. This correspondence took place over several months, sometimes exchanging a letter a day. He eventually accepted her invitation for a return visit to the Henry’s plantation. He arrived in the fall of 1939 with plans to stay for six weeks. He never returned to New York. In all of Mignon’s thousands of pages of writing, he never said why he was willing to leave New York and move so far away from friends and family, ultimately spending the rest of his life in distant, rural Louisiana. One reason might have been the pending transfer from New York to Puerto Rico of his close companion, Christian Belle. With Belle gone, Mignon would have been left alone to cope with his failing eyesight. At Melrose he would always have help. On his departure from New York, Mignon began a daily journal that he would keep Sunday through Friday for the next thirty years. He opened his diary with the melancholy line, “It was dark when I said goodbye to Manhattan, and with few exceptions Manhattan, in all her luminous glory was unmindful that I was gone.”1 Mr. Mignon Is Not Mr. Mignon In Louisiana, Mignon gave the impression that the looming war in Europe had disrupted his international import-export business in New York. There is no evidence, however, that he ever owned such a business. He claimed he had been a student of international law at Columbia University and acted as a consultant in France for the restoration and preservation of Marie Antoinette’s farm at Versailles. He also said he had been an advisor on the preservation of the gardens at the former royal French domain at Marly. The tale of his life-before-Melrose was believed by everyone, embellished on numerous occasions, but never denied by Mignon. He claimed to have been born in Paris and educated at the Sorbonne. Almost everything that was believed to be true about Mignon’s early life turned out...

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