Barbara Adams Larrabee

Former Newtown resident Barbara Adams Larrabee died on February 15, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., after a protracted and courageous contest with osteoporosis. She was 86.

She was born in Dover, N.H., on November 20, 1918, the daughter of Willis John and Marion Badger Adams of Dover, N.H., and Fairlee, Vt.

After high school she earned her BA in biology and French from the University of New Hampshire and later received her master’s in special education from the University of Southern Connecticut.

She was employed by the Personal Book Shops and Lending Libraries in Boston and later by Liberty Mutual Insurance in New Haven, where she met her husband, Capt James Larrabee. During his second tour of duty in Italy she worked in the alumni office at UNH.

They were married in Laredo, Texas, on November 11, 1944, and moved often, living in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Colorado, South Carolina, and finally Newtown, where they resided for 25 years. She taught school in western Massachusetts, in Newtown, and for 20 years at Southbury Training School, dedicating herself to educating delinquent and handicapped teenagers.

In January 1972 her research paper on the state accommodations for educationally deprived teens and recommendations for changes was read in its entirety at the White House Conference on Education.

Her interests and talents were wide-ranging. For many years she had an antique and jewelry business in southern Connecticut and New York. After her husband’s death in 1985, she pursued her lifelong dream of building her home in Fairlee, Vt., on the shores of her beloved Lake Morey, where she lived happily until her death.

Mrs Larrabee loved nature and the out of doors, water and winter sports, hiking, gardening, and travel; she once enjoyed a nine-week trip to the Orient. She organized troops for Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Brownies, taught tennis at the YMCA, and was a camp counselor. She had a passion for music and art that she passed on to her children, and loved old books, genealogy, and researching the history of small New England towns.

She was active in the Congregational Church and historical societies. She volunteered at Yale New Haven Hospital and the Giesel Institute during the war and took a keen interest in the elderly, visiting nursing homes and attending the first New England Conference on the Elderly, held at Yale.

She treasured her children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews and cherished the time she spent with them.

Ms Larrabee is survived by two daughters, Martha J. Larrabee of Lebanon, N.H., and Sarah B. Larrabee of Boulder, Colo.; two sons, John B. Larrabee of Orland, Maine, and James A. Larrabee of Middlebury, Vt.; six grandchildren, Adam, Eleanor, Yuna, Emily, Camille, and Yuri; five nieces and seven nephews; three brothers, Francis Quincy Adams of Dover, N.H., Hubert W. Adams of St Petersburg, Fla., and John R. Adams of Dover, N.H., and Fairlee, Vt.

She was predeceased by two sisters, Helen E. Frost of White Plains, N.Y., and Eleanor M. Lance of Hood River, Ore. She also leaves behind her beloved dogs Maggie and Jewel, protectors extraordinaire.

A memorial service was held on February 23 at The Fairlee Community Church of Christ in Fairlee, Vt.

Memorial contributions may be made to LISTEN, 60 Hanover Street, Lebanon, NH 03766, and she suggested performing a kindness for someone in need.

Arrangements were by Hale Funeral Home of Bradford, Vt.

The Newtown Bee       February 25, 2005