Barataria mas­man ex­tra­or­di­naire Ger­al­do Vieira, 73, made a pro­found con­tri­bu­tion to Car­ni­val by in­tro­duc­ing the mould­ing of head­pieces. On Fri­day, Vieira passed on in Brook­lyn, New York, af­ter bat­tling a year-long ill­ness. In­ter­viewed yes­ter­day, mas­man Earl?Pat­ter­son said, "We have been friends for over 40 years. He was a stal­wart in Car­ni­val. He was help­ful to every­one in­volved in the arts. He was an A-class crafts­man. He in­tro­duced plas­tics and mould­ing. He helped to mod­ernise Car­ni­val. He was good at mak­ing struc­tures for kings and queens."

Vieira is re­mem­bered for his 1959 pro­duc­tion of Fruits and Flow­ers with the late Cito Ve­lasquez. He went on to pro­duce more than eight win­ning Car­ni­val Kings, the last be­ing in 2006. Since his pass­ing, his son Ger­al­do Vieira Jr said the fam­i­ly was touched by an avalanche of vis­its and calls from peo­ple.

He said, "Sad­ness. It shows the amount of re­spect band­lead­ers have for him. You are feel­ing he is like a movie star. He was one of the el­ders. He was a king mak­er. The fam­i­ly feels proud." He leaves to mourn spouse Gre­ta and daugh­ter Gabriel­la. Among those who will sore­ly miss him are mas­men Don­ald Lit­tle, Kris Humphrey, Stephen Derek, Ir­win John­son, Al­bert Moore, Hilton Cox and Bar­ry Ogiste. Fu­ner­al arrange­ments are yet to be an­nounced.