Marion Barry Joins Bush, Clinton, JFK

WASHINGTON - He has already secured his place in history after FBI cameras caught him smoking crack cocaine, but now former "Mayor for Life" Marion Barry will live forever in wax.

A spokesperson for Barry says the former D.C. mayor will have a life-size sculpture of himself displayed at the new Madame Tussauds wax museum when its new D.C. location opens in October.

Barry, who is now a council member for Ward 8, will sit for an artist in the next few weeks. The two-hour session will include photos from multiple angles, which will then be shipped to London where a clay sculpture is made.

The whole process should take about six weeks.

Barry will have some high-profile company. Other notable figures for the new D.C. museum will include President George W. Bush, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Martin Luther King, Jr. and former President John F. Kennedy.

Barry was selected as the last of the 50 figures to be displayed at the museum. He beat out nine other finalists chosen by museum officials, including Nancy Reagan, Oprah Winfrey and Cal Ripken.

The museum's general manager says staffers visited places, such as Union Station and the National Mall, to ask people who they would like to see displayed. Barry won in a landslide.

Barry served as District mayor from 1979 to 1991, and again from 1995 to 1999. He was the target of a high-profile arrest in the early 1990s on drug charges, which precluded him from seeking reelection that year. After he was convicted of the charges, Barry served six months in prison.

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