DETROIT (AP) — Don Barden, a prominent Detroit
businessman who sold vegetables from the road as a child before making millions
in casinos, cable TV and real estate, died Thursday. He was 67.
Barden died from complications of lung cancer, two
days after he was admitted to Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, according
to Barden Companies.
"Don was a stalwart leader and businessman in
this community, as well as a friend," Mayor Dave Bing said in a statement.
"We were aware of his longtime illness and dreaded this day."
Barden made millions with cable TV franchises in
Detroit and the suburbs, but lately the news about him was not flattering. His
wife, Bella Marshall, went to court earlier this year in a dispute over this
ability to manage his assets.
His Majestic Star Casino opened in 1996 in Gary,
Ind. A year later, Barden launched a $50 million, three-deck gambling vessel to
replace the Gary casino, according to spokeswoman Darci McConnell.
Barden's Majestic Star Casino LLC owns casinos in
Las Vegas, Gary, Ind., Black Hawk, Colo., and Tunica, Miss., but the company
has been trying to reorganize in bankruptcy court since 2009.
Barden grew up in Inkster, near Detroit, where he
sold vegetables from the family farm. He dropped out of college in Ohio but
stayed in Lorain, Ohio, for 20 years, working a series of jobs before opening a
record shop at age 22. He started a weekly newspaper, the Lorain County Times,
bought real estate and became the first black member of the Lorain City
Council.
Barden hosted a weekly TV show at the NBC affiliate
in Cleveland and owned five radio stations in Illinois in the 1990s.
He rubbed elbows with the powerful, even teaching
dance steps to President Bill Clinton following a state dinner with South
Africa President Nelson Mandela in the 1990s.
"I'm on a mission to prove that a poor, young
African-American from a very large family, from humble beginnings, can rise to
the top in America in a free enterprise system," Barden told The
Associated Press in 1997 when he was pursuing a Detroit casino license.
Barden didn't get a license and was bitter.
"I got screwed and the city got screwed,"
he recalled in 2004.
Barden was one of the original 11 who submitted
applications to be considered for Detroit's three casinos. He made the first
cut, but then was out of the running, former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer said.
"He was bitterly disappointed that he was not
one of the final three," Archer said. "His application was the only
one that was presented that would have been entirely owned by an African American.
It did not stop him from expanding his business."
The headquarters of Barden Companies is a prominent
downtown building near Comerica Park, the home of the Detroit Tigers, and the
Detroit Athletic Club where he was a member.
Archer called Barden "an outstanding and
brilliant businessman who served the city of Detroit extremely well."
"He could have lived anywhere, but he chose to
live here. He brought new housing and other business opportunities to the
city," Archer said.
In 2010, Black Enterprise ranked Barden Companies
number 10 in the top 100 grossing black-owned business with profits of $405
million. Barden was named that year with the business magazine's lifetime
achievement award.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Bradley C Bower, file)
