Photographer of Cesar Chavez & UFW. Peace, Justice & Eco Warrior has left us. Elfie Ballis

[annm4peace]

I can't express how much Elfie gave the world. He is a true hero, saint and spirit.

After a year long battle against cancer and age, Elfie has finally left us.

Early this morning Elfie called me, and a few minutes after I was with him he breathed his last physical breath.
Yesterday he was telling Dr. Ruth and me that he felt himself flying over the Earth, then felt himself become one with the Earth... and the rocks. The he smiled and cautioned us to "Be careful when you are messing with my rocks!"

He left us with grace and good humor, appreciative of all the assistance offered him. He never cared for the concept of ashes to ashes, and preferred flower to flower. So I share my favorite image that I took with him laying on the Earth - in the lap of Big Mama - and peeking though bright wildflowers on SunMt.

Thanks you for all the loving e-messages. He saw most of them, if he was not able to respond.
He was very weak and tired at the end.

The Endgame Party was his memorial service.

Maia Ballis

See Elfie's incredible life time work. He is a true hero

http://www.sunmt.org/intro.html

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Here is how many of you knew of Elfie Balis:







1964 Fannie Lou Hamer when
credential committee decided not to fully recognize Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates





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Remembering George Ballis

KFCF will re-air the End Game Party tribute to George this Saturday, September 25th at 7:00 PM. Pacific time
http://www.kfcf.us/ (you can listen on line)

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By Alex Vavoulis

I first met George Ballis when I was president of the Fresno Free College Foundation and manager of KFCF radio. The radio station started broadcasting on June 9, 1975. One of the big political issues at that time was the Federal regulations governing the use of water for agricultural purposes on the basis of the farmer owning 160 acres of land. For the corporate farmers with thousands of acres of farm land it was easy to circumvent the law. They just put 160 acre parcels in the name of a family member.

George Ballis could not sit by and watch this misuse of a law which was intended to help small farmers. When a Senate sub-committee came to Fresno to hold hearings, George, who was very knowledgeable in agricultural issues, saw an opportunity to help the small farmer. The hearings took place in the auditorium at Fresno City College, in the late 1970s and were broadcast live on KFCF. I could still see George rolling a huge file cabinet filled with folders about the 160 acre legislation onto the stage of the auditorium. It was a sight to see!

George was into a lot of political and social issues; he seemed to be everywhere. At a back yard at the home of Chris and Howard Watkins, I quipped to George that there are people in Fresno who are masquerading as George Ballis.

In 1978 he presented the Fresno Free College Foundation with a slide show at its 10th Anniversary celebration. The show that he produced with Maia Sortor, was a wonderful history, with narration and music, of the Foundation’s first 10-years. That slide show has been transferred to a DVD and is catalogued at the Henry Madden Library at CSUF and at the Fresno County Library.

The Board of Directors of the Foundation shares the sorrow that is felt by many members of the community. It is not easy to lose someone who made such a positive contribution to human rights; our community lost a fighter who wanted peace and justice for all human beings. To individuals who joined the battle with him, they lost a comrade-in-arms. George will be alive in our grieving and in our thoughts.

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Here is a Elfie being one with the Earth while he was still alive
http://my.fresnoarts.net/profile/GeorgeElfieBallis


Rest in Peace Elfie, I know you will be with all of us who see Justice

I was bless to have known you.

[annm4peace]

1. More coverage on our great loss

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/09/25/2092376/famed-documentary-photography.html

Documentary photographer George Ballis dies

By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee

Photographer George "Elfie" Ballis, who walked with the late United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez, led a rebellion against farmers over water and documented peace movements in Fresno, died early Friday. He was 85.

Mr. Ballis, a Marine veteran, had been ill for a long time and died at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fresno. His ailments included prostate cancer, friends said.

With his health in decline, he held an "End Game Party" at his Tollhouse home in November 2009. He and his wife, Maia, sang songs and shared stories about his life with hundreds of friends.

Maia Ballis could not be reached to comment Saturday. In an e-mail to friends Friday, she said Mr. Ballis told his doctor "he felt himself flying over the Earth, then felt himself become one with the Earth ... and the rocks."

"He left us with grace and good humor, appreciative of all the assistance offered him," the e-mail said. "He never cared for the concept of ashes to ashes, and preferred flower to flower."

Maia Ballis said she donated his body to LifeLegacy, a nonprofit medical research and education foundation in Tucson, Ariz.

Ballis leaves behind a legacy of social activism and artistic sensitivity, others who knew him said Saturday.

"He was really a unique guy," Mike Rhodes, editor of the local Community Alliance Newspaper, said Saturday. "He loved life and took pride in his work."

As a photographer, Mr. Ballis "could move like the wind and blend into the scenery."

His secret: whether his subjects were farmworkers or Native Americans, he would first get to know them before snapping pictures. Once he gained their trust, he was able to make photographs of people just being themselves, Rhodes said.

Mr. Ballis began covering the farm labor movement in the 1960s. One of his most memorable photographs shows Chavez in March 1966 leading farmworkers on a pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento.

Learning of Mr. Ballis' death, UFW president Arturo Rodriguez and Paul Chavez, president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation and son of Cesar Chavez, issued a joint statement: "No one has consistently demonstrated George's love and commitment to La Causa over so many decades."

Born in Minnesota, Mr. Ballis helped his parents run a dry-cleaning business and was a high school football standout in his hometown of Faribault.

In 1943, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and repaired radar equipment in Chicago and torpedo bombers in the South Pacific.

In a 2005 interview, Mr. Ballis said the experience made him a man, and gave him his first look at the world outside Minnesota -- an experience that would change his life forever.

After the war, Mr. Ballis enrolled at the University of Minnesota, planning to become an electrical engineer. Instead, he joined a radical campus organization called the Student World Federalists.

In 1947, Mr. Ballis wrote a paper opposing the war in Indochina that pitted the French against the native Vietnamese. Years later, he watched in dismay as the United States got involved, and the Vietnam War escalated under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Mr. Ballis came to Fresno in 1953. He was editor of the Valley Labor Citizen until 1966 and led National Land for People's so-called "water war" against west-side farmers from the mid-1970s to early 1980s.

He got his nickname years ago after a Berkeley radio host said he handled questions "with grace and lightness -- like an elf."

In recent years, he followed protesters with his video camera, covering issues ranging from the treatment of animals to the war in Iraq.

"I Am Joaquin," a 16-minute film Mr. Ballis made in 1969, won several awards and was used in Chicano studies at universities. Some footage he shot during a Peace Fresno protest was included in Michael Moore's 2004 controversial hit movie "Fahrenheit 9/11."