Winnie May Barrett

In her own words in 2023:

I was born on April 13, 1935 in a small town (Hawthorne, CA). It's about 25 miles from Los Angeles and 7 miles from the Pacific Ocean beaches. I was the baby of a family of 8. My parents had seven children in 10 years and i came long 10 years later. I was so blessed to have such a loving and large family. I am proud to state that I never heard cross words from family members. I had three brothers and four sisters. We were blessed with longevity. Five of the, lived into their 90s! The one that I was closest to lived healthy and happy to be 98 years old! My dad owned a malt shop, like Happy Days on TV. Thus, our family was well-known in our small town.

At around 9 years old, I began playing the piano. I also played saxophone and bassoon. At one time, I could play a tune on every instrument in the band (except the tuba). Upon graduation, I was offered thirteen scholarships to play piano in college. However, by then, I had met my husband, Jay, and decided to get married. We became parents at 18 and 19 with our first beautiful baby girl. We had another daughter and son in the next few years.

Together with my husband, we had many adventures and travels with our children. We belonged to motorcycle clubs and traveled in our motor home for many years. We once took our entire family, even grandkids, on a month-long vacation to Utah. We rented a houseboat on Lake Powell and spent two weeks traveling to National Parks.

We attended all of our kid's sporting events and became involved in our local park's Baseball Commission. I once represented our association in a debate with the Mayor of Los Angeles on television to get lights installed at our neighborhood baseball fields. We had 1,200 boys in our baseball league. The Parks and Recreation Department named one of their baseball fields after our family.

In addition to being Vice-President of the sale company I worker for, I served as President of our Homeowners Association and led many social clubs until retirement in 1998. We moved into our lake home on an outlet of the Colorado River. Once again, I was the President of the Homeowners Association. We enjoyed organizing and hosting parties and live music on our deck, overlooking the water. For those of you that like to fish, one of our sons-in-law caught a 48 lb. catfish off our dock! I fundraised over $20K four our community. One of our proud accomplishments was having my husband and son build a 9 hole mini-golf course for our residents to enjoy.

My husband and I enjoyed 68 joyous years together, He passed away in 2020 and I moved here (Missouri) in 2021 to be closer to family. I have been so blessed to have met such joyous and kind ladies and I thank God for all that He has done and continues to do for me.
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Grandma will be remembered for the way she lit up every room she entered, for her beautiful smile, kind heart, quiet strength, and unmistakable sense of style and grace. Above all, she was deeply devoted to her family. She will be profoundly missed, and her love and spirit will live on in the hearts of all who knew and loved her.

Preceded in death by:
Husband, Jay
Daughter, Connie

Survived by:
Son-in-law: Tom Murdock
Daughter and son-in-law: Debbie and Al Villanueva
Son and daughter-in-law: Jay and Ruby Barrett
Grandchildren: Meshelle and Cliff Stock (Aidan, Connor); Tommy and April Murdock (Lily, Ty, Maximus); Nicole and Dallas Ludwig; Alysha and Vik Kapur (Ava, Alec, Jay, Nina, Leo, Priya); Daniel and Melissa Villanueva (Jack, Breck)