Epilogue

FOR Snow White’S FIFTIETH anniversary in 1987, Walt’s nephew Roy E. Disney invited Babbitt to an artists’ reunion. It was the first time in fifty years that a Disney smiled beside Art Babbitt.

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In 1992, when Babbitt was hospitalized for kidney failure, his wife Barbara delivered a package for him. It was a home video release of Fantasia with a handwritten note from Roy E. Disney, giving Babbitt the honor due to him “at last.” Barely able to speak, Babbitt responded to his wife, “It’s so nice to be part of the gang again.”1

Babbitt died on March 4, 1992, at age 85. His memorial service was attended by old and young animators alike, strikers and non-strikers. Frank Thomas, one of Walt’s Nine Old Men, spoke at the service.

Babbitt’s remains were interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, overlooking Disney’s Burbank headquarters. As a World War II veteran, he received a twenty-one-gun salute. One of the animators whispered to another, “If Art had his way, those guns would be pointed down at the studio!”2

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In 2007 Art Babbitt posthumously became a Disney Legend. Costumed Disney characters stood by at the ceremony, and Roy E. Disney presented the award with an anecdote. “Art kept a photo on his desk of the Snow White animation team,” he said. “He had circled each face and written each of their names. By his own face he wrote, ‘The Troublemaker’—not unrightfully.”3 The audience erupted in laughter, and Babbitt’s widow Barbara was escorted to the podium under Goofy’s arm.

Art Babbitt at the Walt Disney studio on Hyperion Avenue, circa 1935.