Barbara J. Buckley

Of Cotuit MA and Naples, FL. died peacefully on May 2, 2002 in Naples. Born in Fall River, MA and brought up in Newton, MA, Barbara was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Jackson College at Tufts University, Class of 1953. In her freshman year at Tufts in 1949, Barbara met her future husband, John G. Buckley. Barbara was an avid bridge player and during the eighteen years prior to moving to Cotuit in 1987 she and John lived in Lynnfield. Barbara was well known in North Shore bridge circles and played weekly in Andover, Peabody, Marblehead and Reading. Among the high points in her bridge career was playing five boards in a Bermuda Regional against Belladonna and Goratzo, the two aces of the Italian Blue Team which had won the Bermuda Bowl World Championship just the week before. Her single best bridge day came when she and her partner, Harriet Bernstein of Peabody, MA won a two event New York Regional Championship - a fact duly reported the following day by Alan Truscott in his New York Times column. Despite her self-acknowledged lack of athletic prowess, Barbara became a good intermediate skier who would tackle any trail provided she could set her own pace so as to stay "under control". She enjoyed many weeks and weekends skiing with her family and friends in New England, Colorado and Switzerland. Barbara was also a gourmet cook, and an absolute wizard around a sewing machine. She loved making outfits for the American Doll series and gave her granddaughters and grand nieces some 250 outfits. Her favorite Cotuit pastime was going down to Lowell Park to watch the Kettleers play baseball. She watched three of her grandsons go through four years of Kettleer clinics and until the last couple of years never missed a home game. She is survived by her husband John, with whom she traveled a good part of the world during his career as an oil executive; her sons, Mark Alan of Cotuit, Erick Gilbert of Marco Island, Scott William of Cotuit and her daughter Beth Ann Matathia of Reading, MA. Barbara loved and was proud of her eight grandchildren; Kary 22; Sarah 20; Taylor 18; Justin 18; Shannon 17; Alexander 15; MacCall 12 and Caden 4. A Memorial Service will be held at the Cotuit Federated Church on May 18th at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorial donations to the Cotuit Athletic Assoc., PO Box 411, Cotuit, MA 02635