Hello, dear friends and family. Today, Nanny’s obituary was released in the Palm Beach Post. I figured I’d post it here as well since many of us don’t get the paper anymore. If you haven’t read my previous blogpost about our family, you can read here: clairesalmonbooks.com/blog/my-mother-is-writing-my-grandmothers-obituary-today
I hope if you knew Nan, you feel she’s well-represented here and, if you didn’t, that you get a good idea of her soul. Along with the official picture for her obituary, I’ve posted pictures below of two facets I knew as her granddaughter: the thoughtful, soothing listener and the passionate, playful reveler of all grandmotherly things. I’m an infant in both of these, but even once I was older, she never failed to listen to me or to make me smile when I needed it.
Nancy Bryant Barry was born September 12, 1937, in West Palm Beach, to Madeleine Heinmuller and Clarence Weston (Pete) Bryant.A third generation Floridian, she grew up on 36th Street in West Palm Beach, attended Northboro Elementary School, and graduated from Palm Beach High in 1955.Nancy was a poet and letter-writer extraordinaire, devoting careful attention to journals and diaries throughout her life.She was as unconventional as they come—a nudist, a nature lover, and an activist wherever she found herself, whether on the muggy South Florida coast, among misty mountains in Oregon, or in the driest desert in Arizona.She always saw the best in people—even when they didn’t see it in themselves. Everyone that knew Nancy had a place at her dinner table and in her heart. She sent you home with baked goods, seeds, and smiles.Nancy had her three children in West Palm Beach, where she collected all sorts of hobbies and friends. She worked many years as a bookkeeper and at the radio station, WPBR, where she hosted a local talk show.She lived some years in Eugene, Oregon, where she married her soulmate Kenneth (Ed) Barry. They moved to Tucson, Arizona, a place called “Dogpatch,” in the early 80’s. As Nancy opened her heart and home to all who passed through, she made the desert bloom in her garden. Nancy and Ed spent many years exploring the mountains, forests, and deserts of the Southwest in their oddly comfortable RV ‘Sluggo’ and collected a small zoo of animals: cats, dogs, a flock of quails.She adored her children and grandchildren—that was apparent by the hand-sewn quilts and clothes, letters, and phone calls, that arrived each day that she wasn’t visiting. She is preceded in death by her husband Kenneth (Ed) Barry who loved her till the end.While dementia robbed Nancy of her memories, COVID-19 robbed her of her life.She is survived by her children, Leslie McBride Salmon (Fred C. Salmon), Richard Alan McBride (Cindy Rodier McBride), and Helen Foreman Bailey (George Bailey), sister Cynthia Turner (Fred Turner), cousin Weston Sigmond (Glenda Yang), and grandchildren Brian, Patrick and Shane McBride, and Kathryn Claire Salmon, among other dear family and friends.
I leave you with a picture of Nan on her 50th (YES, 50TH) birthday, barefoot, after she hiked to the top of Mount Lemon to celebrate her 50th year.
Love you, Nan. I hope, like Aunt Helen said to me, that you’ve found Grandpa Ed by now and are talking his ear off about the last 8 years.