My mother

My 87 year old mother died Friday evening. The last few years of her life she was increasingly afflicted by dementia and so it was a long good-bye for my father, brothers, sisters-in-law, daughter, nieces and nephew and me.

Here is a link to the obituary my brother wrote in the QCTimes on-line edition. The obituary also appeared in the Moline Dispatch (but I could not find it in the on-line edition of that paper) and the Chester (Illinois) Herald.

Here is a picture of her taken before her marriage and long before I was born so I have no actual memories of her looking that young and glamorous. But I would like to think of her as beautiful and care-free as she appears in this picture, forever young, and so I shall. I invite you to do so, also.

Newton and Geneseo friends

Newton and Geneseo friends
Originally uploaded by dvdbarrett

Newton Barrett (1890-1976) wrote the following about this picture in his photo scrapbook:

One of my real friends in Geneseo was Robert Cross, with whom, along with his brother Paul, I spent a number of hours. He was a camera fan, in the days when this was a much rarer hobby than now. He use blue-print paper for the prints, cheaper than regular treated paper. Here we were a couple of miles from town, at the railroad pumping station, playing near the canal, which was only partly finished. I am handing a stone to Clinton Searlye [Newton on the left, Clinton on the right], with Paul and the pump-man's two little boys looking on. About 1904.

Newton Elliott Barrett with a bicycle

Newton Elliott Barrett with a bicycle
Originally uploaded by dvdbarrett

Newton Barrett (1890-1976) wrote about this photo:

Uncle Will had bought a bicycle for his rural pastoral calls near Geneseo, Ill. I learned to ride it; and used it more than he did. I put the seat down as low as it would go; and he at first would raise it and screw the nut to hold it up. This was too much for his indolent nature; so he would put it up only half way, in hopes I would stretch and wait for the pedals to rise to where I could touch them. This picture was evidently taken near a public building in 1903.

Newton Barrett was orphaned at the age of 7 and went to live with his 'Uncle Will' (the Rev. William Barrett Millard). Newton had decidedly mixed feelings about his uncle as is evident in this quote from his photo scrapbook.