Barbara Warner Howard

Barbara Leah Warner Howard died on November 9, 2022.

Barbara was born on September 30, 1934. She was the daughter of one of the great Hollywood moguls, Jack Warner, founder of Warner Bros., and Anne Page Warner. She recalled riding her tricycle around the studio lot as a toddler. Judy Garland sang at her Sweet 16, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor attended her debutante ball, and everyone from Elvis Presley to Frank Sinatra to Delores Del Rio were guests in her parents' home. She told a story of climbing through a window at the Brown Derby Restaurant while on a date with Robert Evans to escape his fast-moving hands.

Though Barbara was born into a kind of American royalty most of us could only dream of, she aspired to escape it. So she headed east for her education, first in Switzerland and then at the Spence School in New York City, which at the time was a boarding school for girls. College at Sarah Lawrence followed.

An encounter with the debonair owner of the famed La Tour D'Argent restaurant in Paris, Claude Terrail, led to marriage and Barbara's only child, Anne Terrail. Claude had been a member of the French Resistance during World War II, his job to listen in and report on the conversations between the Nazis who used his restaurant as their personal canteen. The couple eventually divorced. Barbara later married jazz musician Raymond Lesénéchal and lived with him in Paris until they divorced.
A dedicated patron of the arts, Barbara became a founding member of the New York Theatre Workshop and remained an integral figure for over 40 years, serving on the board and as Board Chair. She was an early backer of many shows that transferred to Broadway, including RENT, ONCE, HADESTOWN and WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME. Her decades-long support and significant financial contributions nurtured the early careers of many prominent artists including Tony Kushner, Doug Wright, Ivo van Hove, Lisa Kron, The Five Lesbian Brothers, James Macdonald, Michael Greif, Lisa Peterson, Will Power, The Noor Theatre Company, Liliana Blaine-Cruz and Heidi Schreck.