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Galatea Lebus traveled the world and danced to polkas and Greek music. When she died, she left South Pasadena a fortune.
By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 14, 2000
SOUTH PASADENA -- A dozen or so boxes stored in the city's temporary public works building paint a fragmented picture of the life of Galatea Lebus.
Young faces smile or, as was the style of the day, stare solemnly from sepia photographs. In vibrant color slides preserved in 1960s Kodachrome, Mrs. Lebus plays croquet in Nova Scotia, photographs statues in Mexico, dramatically checks herself in the mirror while at home in Chicago.
In one photo, she reads a book while settling into a twin-sized bed with a seafoam green velveteen headboard. A red flower is positioned in her hair, and she's wearing little more than the diaphanous drape the Galatea statue will wear in South Pasadena.
The photos and keepsakes describe the woman who left $1-million to the city of South Pasadena, requesting that it be spent on a garden named after her and a statue idealizing the Greek mythological figure that was her namesake.
They also tell a story about a woman who died in 1997 at age 90, leaving her sizable estate to the city she lived in, the church where she worshiped and two Greek relatives.
Mrs. Lebus was born in Greece and spent much of her life in Chicago, where she was secretary for the General Greek Consul for 10 years. She also taught languages at schools in Chicago, then, after moving to South Pasadena, in St. Petersburg.
She became friends with Cliff Herring, another South Pasadena retiree, soon after her husband William Lebus' death. She and Herring, friends told the Times soon after Mrs. Lebus' death on July 10, 1997, were great friends and dance partners.
Indeed, among the items she left to the city are two boxes of dance music casette tapes. One is marked "polkas," one "honky tonk," another "Greek dance songs." One tape, labeled "raunchy," also has the words "best" and "No. 1" written on its label.
The slides left to the city show statues or gardens or architectural details of beautiful buildings around the world. In a set of slides from a trip to Greece in the 1960s, she shot little more than statues, gardens and buildings -- except for one photo of her posing in front of a Greek column, her black skirt blowing in the wind.
Those photos were from her life with Mr. Lebus. Thirty years ago, after his death, she met Herring.
The two never married, but they called each other fiance and fiancee. They danced and dined together, enjoying each other's company.
On July 9, 1997, Herring died at age 98. The next day, hours after learning of his death, Mrs. Lebus died, too.
He had left his money to her, and her will called for proceeds from his estate to be used for the Galatea statue.
But because she survived him by a day, the estate was divided among Mrs. Lebus' beneficiaries. The city ended up with just $23,000 to use for the statue, and the rest of the $100,000 statue was purchased with part of the $1-million Mrs. Lebus left the city.
The Galatea statue should arrive sometime in June, depending on when the city can coordinate its installation. But the dedication of the park will take place this fall, after South Pasadena's seasonal residents have returned to the city.
Even the ceremonial opening was crafted by Mrs. Lebus.
"One of the musical performances to be presented in my honor shall consist of an entire program of Greek modern music," Mrs. Lebus wrote in her will. "I dearly love this music, and I will be thankful."