Barbara Ann Sayre Monroe

Barbara Ann Sayre Monroe Barbara Ann Sayre Monroe passed away on September 6, 2012, in Bethesda, Maryland at the age of 75. Barbara was born in Clayton, New Mexico on March 7, 1937, the daughter of Lauren Bruce Sayre and Vera Simpson. She grew up on the historic Sayre Ranch, the family's homestead claim, located 40 miles northwest of Clayton in the valley of the Dry Cimmaron River near the Colorado and Oklahoma borders with New Mexico. She was raised on the ranch with her two older siblings, Betty Lee and Shirley "Buster" George, and enjoyed tending to cattle and other farm animals as well as raising crops and a garden. It was on the ranch that she developed her life-long love of horses, first riding bare back with her father and brother on the prairie and then later as a champion barrel racer in high school. Barbara attended several elementary schools in the vicinity of the Sayre Ranch, often travelling by horseback. She attended Clayton High School where she met her husband-to-be, Kendyl Kurth Monroe, who was born and raised in Clayton. Barbara graduated from high school in 1955 and attended the University of New Mexico until she married Kendyl on September 12, 1956 in Clayton. She and Kendyl then moved to Palo Alto, California, where Kendyl was attending Stanford University, and their first son Sidney Sayre was born in 1958. After Kendyl graduated from Stanford Law School in 1960, the family moved to New York and Kendyl joined the prominent law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in Manhattan. In 1962, their second son Dean Dottis was born followed by a third son Loren Lee in 1968. Soon thereafter, the family bought and restored a brownstone house in Greenwich Village where Barbara and her husband raised the boys and entertained many guests. She enjoyed Broadway and Off-Broadway theater, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and all the other fine things New York had to offer. She frequently accompanied Kendyl on his global business travels. Barbara's many charitable activities in New York included the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Charles Street Association and the Legal Aid Society. She was also an active volunteer for many years with the Parent's Association at Grace Church School in New York, where all three of her sons graduated, and the Women's Association at Grace Church in New York, where she and Kendyl were active members. Later in life she was an active volunteer with the Herzstein Memorial Museum and the P.E.O. in Clayton, New Mexico, and the Kenton Museum in Kenton, Oklahoma. She loved spending time with family and friends at the Monroe "camp" in the Lake Champlain area of the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York, visiting regularly from 1968 through this past summer. She reared horses on the property and rode daily. She gifted her love of horses to her granddaughters, all of whom today are avid horsewomen. When Kendyl retired from the law practice in 1994, Barbara and he returned to the Sayre Ranch where they built an adobe home on the property using indigenous materials. They also purchased and operated the neighboring El Valle Escondido Ranch where Barbara oversaw the restoration of many historic buildings and raised a stable of horses. She continued to ride her horses until after her 70th birthday. When health issues no longer made it possible for Barbara to live at the high altitude and remote location of the ranch, she and Kendyl relocated near their sons Dean and Loren in Bethesda, Maryland. For the following two years, she cherished spending time with her grandchildren and making new friends in the Washington, DC area. After persevering with dignity for many years, Barbara succumbed to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Her funeral service will be held on Saturday, September 22nd at 11:00 am at the United Methodist Church in Kenton, Oklahoma. A Celebration of Life Service will be held on Saturday, October 13th at 11:00 am at Grace Church, 802 Broadway, in New York. Barbara is survived by her husband of 56 years, Kendyl Monroe. She was the caring and revered mother of three sons, Sidney (of Santa Fe), Dean and Loren, and loving grandmother of Veronica, Keenan, Henry, Devon, Miles and Linden. She is also survived by her sister, Betty Sayre, and many nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in memory of Barbara Monroe to The Herzstein Memorial Museum, P.O. Box 75, Clayton, NM 88415.