Dorothy Barry, 102
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Dorothy Lippman Barry died Nov. 25 after a full and long life,. She was born in Providence, and with the exception of college and the years of World War II (and a brief sojourn to East Providence), she lived her entire life there and will be sadly missed by those who knew her.
After attending Classical for all but her last semester of high school, because of romantic complications she transferred to and graduated from Hope and then graduated from Simmons College in Boston in 1940. In that last high school semester, on a blind date she met her future husband Fred Barry, then a Brown student. They remained together until Fred's death in 1996.
Quiet and short – she claimed 5 feet tall but was probably less – her moral clarity and intelligence gave her a presence and strength despite her height. She was never one to start an argument, yet she stood up for herself and others and was always ferociously independent, yet there was nothing rigid about her; rather, she always exhibited a sense of irony, a sense of humor and a sense of playfulness. She had fun. Her eyes were usually smiling. She spent most of her professional career as a case worker for the state of Rhode Island and then as a supervisor of case workers, and she co-founded the union representing social workers, which was organized in a series of meetings in her East Side home.
After retirement in 1983, she volunteered frequently, spending most of her time as a counselor at Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, as well as for numerous political campaigns. A member of or involved with the National Council of Jewish Women, Temple Emanu-El, The Miriam Hospital Women's Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Society, the Simmons Club of Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island School of Design, she was determined to make herself of use as she had all her life.
She succeeded in that determination always with good humor, as indicated by the fact that many of her friends were younger than her children; they not only liked and respected her but valued her advice. Her hobbies were bridge and knitting. Even after she turned 100, she made regular trips to her bridge club to play, and over the years many members of her extended family and friends proudly wore sweaters and scarfs she made. To the end she was a daily reader of the (hard copy) Providence Journal, politically active, and greatly relieved by the 2020 election, which she took great care to vote in. To the end she remembered and valued her friendships with lifelong friends who have passed away. To the end she relished Happy Hours with new friends.
She loved her father and missed her mother, who died when she was young, but found great pleasure in and gave great pleasure to her sisters Alice, Frieda and Ethel and her brother Bill. Alice and she were inseparable even when they weren't playing bridge. She loved and was loved by her sons and daughters-in-law Phil and Bobbie Barry (with whom she shared an introvert side that she didn’t show to a lot of people) and John Barry and Anne Hudgins Sullivan (with whom she shared a contagious vitality and an affinity for a particular kind of pillow). She had a very special relationship with her grandson Eric and great-grandson Louis, and she was as close as a mother to her niece and nephew Judy and David Ullman, and much like a sister to her niece and frequent bridge partner Joyce Tesler.
She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Phil and Bobbie in Evanston, Ill,. and John and Anne in New Orleans, and her brother Bill Lippman in Los Angeles.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, 345 Whitney Ave., New Haven, CT 06511 or RI Community Food Bank, 200 Niantic Ave., Providence, RI 02907.
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obituary, Dorothy Lippman Barry
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