Julie Bidou

Julie Bidou (1918 – 2018)
by Hali Hammer
from the Folknik May-June 2018

Julie Bidou, an icon of the Bay Area folk community and beyond, passed away peacefully at the age of 100 on March 18 at Granada Residential Care Facility in Pinole where she’d been living since July 2016. Friends from the folk Club and the Buddhist community sang with her regularly until her passing.

Julie was born on January 10, 1918, to a French American mother and a French father. She had four older step-siblings and a younger sister, grew up on a ranch in Manteca, California, then attended Junior College in Modesto and got an office job through the National Youth Administration, a New Deal agency. She graduated right before the bombing at Pearl Harbor and in 1944, at 26, joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp (WAAC). Her first experience with folk music was at the WAAC camp in Asheville, North Carolina, and she carried that love with her throughout her life. Near the end of WWII she became the editor of Ashville’s camp newsletter.

After discharge, she moved to the Bay Area and spent the next 21 years teaching first and second grade in Oakland. In the late 1940s, Julie was accused of being a member of the Communist Party and needed 12 people to vouch for her in order to keep her teaching job. She hosted a children’s music show on KPFA from 1953-55 and was in charge of a weekly program presented by the San Francisco Folk Music Club on KPFA in 1970.

From 1980 to 1994 she hosted folk performances at her venue, “Julie’s Place”. When the series became too big for her living room, she moved to larger local venues such as the Berkeley UU, Albany Community Center, and the First Congregational Church in Oakland (which seated 300-400 people). Many luminaries of the national folk scene performed at Julie’s Place, including The Limelighters, Dave Van Ronk, Leon Rosselson, Tom Paxton, Utah Phillips, Rosalie Sorrels, and John McCutcheon. She also did a lot of behind-the-scenes work for music festivals and more in the Bay Area.

Julie sold her house but remained in Berkeley, moving into Strawberry Creek Lodge, where she continued to provide monthly music events for the residents for many years, and organized caroling parties through the halls at Christmas time. She led groups from there to demonstrate regularly for peace and antiwar causes and was involved with women’s groups. To celebrate her 90th year, she released a CD, Timeless French Songs & Favorites, of music she’d collected and performed throughout her long life. She performed at care facilities and volunteered at a women’s shelter in West Berkeley, sang for Bread & Roses and at the San Francisco Free Folk Festival.

Aside from her musical interests, Julie was also very active for many years in the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (chairman of their coffee house from 1968-70) and had a deep commitment to Buddhism, attending weekly meetings and silent retreats for many years. Julie was awarded a Certificate of Recognition from the Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women on May 10, 1995, honoring her as a Folk Music Pioneer. She was very proud of officially becoming a wise old woman at a croning ceremony at a Folk Club Memorial Day campout.

Julie’s Celebration of Life will be held at the Berkeley UU, 1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita) from noon to 4 pm on Saturday, June 2. Check the Harmony e-list or e-mail hali for details.