DR. BARBARA GRAHAM

About

University of Arkansas University of Miami University of Vermont

BARBARA GRAHAM Obituary

GRAHAM, DR. BARBARA, a resident of Miami since 1964, passed away in her home on May 16, 2011. She was 74. Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Bristol, Connecticut, she was a professor of Spanish Language and Literature, Humanities and English at St. Thomas University in Miami for 34 years. Retired in 2001, she continued to teach as an adjunct professor of English at St. John Vianney College Seminary. Barbara received her B.A. degree from the University of Vermont, her M.A. from the University of Arkansas, and earned the Ph.D. degree in Spanish Language and Literature in 1969 at the University of Miami. Her parents, both deceased, were Rotha Staples and Edward L. Graham of Bristol, Connecticut. She is survived by a niece, Laurie Graham Rhoads of Austin, Texas, and two nephews, Scott Graham, of Plano, Texas and Joel Graham of Cheshire, Connecticut and their families, her brother Everett, and a cherished aunt, Irma Bush and cousin, Corey Bush of Canaan, Connecticut. On Saturday, June 4th, at 11:00 AM, a memorial service will be held at St. John Vianney Seminary College, 2900 S.W. 87th Avenue (Galloway Road), Miami. View this Guest Book at www. MiamiHerald.com/obituaries.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by the Miami Herald on Jun. 2, 2011.

Memories and Condolences
for BARBARA GRAHAM

7 Entries

June 28, 2011

We were so shocked and saddened to hear of the death of our friend, Barbara. The three of us had grown up together here in Bristol and took many summer vacations together. Four years ago, we reunited for a trip to our favorite vacation spot in Maine; then, again the following year to visit Barbara's childhood vacation home in New Hampshire. She was all of the wonderful, kind, and generous things that other people have mentioned, and that never changed. We are both so happy that we had the opportunity to enjoy each other's company again, and to make more recent memories to add to those we have had throughout our lives.

Pam Lindvall
GraceAnn Grindal

June 24, 2011

I can say no more than has already been so beautifully expressed by your friends, except I am honored to have been your friend for 47 years. You will always have a place in my heart.

Love Always, Rick Ryan (perhaps your worst Spanish student ever!)

Nancy Cheney Savon

June 11, 2011

I wrote this for the Memorial service:

“She’s really strict.” “I’m scared of her.” “She’s so tough.” “You’re taking Spanish and she’s your professor – you poor thing!” These statements from well meaning dorm mates were my first introduction to Barbara Graham. On the first day of class I entered the room with some trepidation waiting to see the instructor who could cause even the Drake University football players to quake in their boots. After about the first fifteen minutes, I decided that Profesora Barbara put on a great intimidating “act.” I was amused rather than being intimidated and thought she was great! Thus we became friends. Barbara had a gruff exterior, and a marvelous dry sense of humor which stayed with her for a lifetime. Perhaps her sense of humor was enriched by her love of the “Peanuts” cartoon. All of this happened in 1962 and I’m very pleased and proud to say that Dona Barbara and I remained good friends for 49 years.
Barbara had a wonderful heart. She was a warm and giving person who cared deeply about her friends – and students. She made the extra effort to help her students succeed. This is common knowledge to everyone who knew Barbara and I’m sure other people will talk about this today so I won’t go further with this train of thought. I’m sure others will talk about her love of world travel and the precious souvenirs she brought home. I always enjoyed her letters - and especially so after one of her trips. They were so full of local color that it was almost like being along for the ride.
Barbara was my Summer Visitor. I lived in New York City for a number of years and every summer, to my great delight, Barbara would come to visit. She loved wandering the city, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, Broadway shows, seeing her good friends Cesar, Beatrice, and Dr. Sally Jo and ferreting out the newest restaurants to try with the most interesting and unusual foods.
I was her Winter Visitor. I sought the sunshine and warmth of Florida mid winter fleeing New York’s cold weather. Barbara was a great cook. In addition to cooking the best liver and onions I ever ate in my life, she made a “mean” Paella and gave wonderful dinner parties in my honor which gave me the opportunity to meet many of her close Florida friends like Robert “Bobby” Vitale and Christel Marin among others.
Lastly, one of my favorite memories of Barbara is the way she spoke and the words she used. She truly enjoyed the King’s English “New England Yankee” style. This past Wednesday I came across a letter –stuck in a Spanish grammar book - that she wrote me in 1997 where she said that she “would betake herself to Barnes and Noble.” Who “betakes” themselves anymore? Barbara did – and she just wrote the same thing in an email to me in April. She was still “betaking” herself! I like to think that now Barbara has “betaken” herself to a better place and is sitting there today enjoying her memorial service enormously.
Nancy Cheney Savon
Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico

Sean Melvin

June 9, 2011

I was one of Barbara Graham's students as a freshman at Biscayne in 1983. I loved her classes and we kept in touch after graduation through letters and an occasional Paella at her home. She certainly was a proud cynic, but she loved teaching and she cared a great deal about her students.

I'm a professor at a small college in Pennsylvania and when I look out on the first day of classes, I can't help but to remember how much I learned from Barbara Graham and her faculty colleagues so many years ago.

She loved to teach Robert Frost because she was a true Yankee and I still remember how she smiled when explaining ice and snow symbols to her Floridian students---

I am certainly fortunate that our paths crossed and I will miss her Christmastime messages.

Byron Hauser

June 7, 2011

Barbara Graham was the first Miamian I met when I came to Florida in 1970 to go to graduate school. Our paths crossed in odd coincidental ways for the next forty years. This included a summer together in Mexico and one memorable meeting with Barbara in Notre Dame Cathedral. Our lives have carried us in different directions, but it has always been a comfort to me to have Barbara near even if only on the periphery of my life, and always a joy to see her in person. Barbara was dependable Yankee brick, honest and generous someone you could always absolutely depend on. A wonderful thing in a friend.

June 3, 2011

June 05, 2011

Barbara Graham had left for Paris, and I was to meet her there the next week. I had suggested to her that she visit my friend Denise who lived a few blocks from the hotel, and I alerted (warned!) Denise that she would visit. When I arrived at the Hotel Tourisme ay LaMotte-Picquet, Barbara was at a museum. I went to see Denise. and she informed me that Barbara had spent an afternoon with her. "Qu'est-ce que tu penses d'elle? (What do you think of her?), I asked. Denise replied. "C'est un vrai phenomène !!! "How perceptive!", thought I. Barbara was indeed a veritable phenomenon!

In Miami, she considered herself a "Connecticut Yankee" living in the "northernmost city in Latin America" - which suited her well. My nephew, Robert Taglairino, presented a great portrait of Barbara Graham in his guest entry. She was never pretentious, and she was known and respected by her friends, colleagues and students for her fairness, honesty, forthrightness, cross-cultural understanding, and self-reliance. She loved teaching, and she especially loved where she taught - at St. Thomas University and at St. John Vianney Seminary College. Most of all she loved her students, and many of them remained in touch with her over the years. Her standards remained high ("Barbara" standards) when it came to grading, an honest A, B or C or... In graduate school, a professor gave her a grade that she thought more than she deserved, and he apologized. Barbara said, "It's OK. I would have flunked me." I am sure that many of you certainly understand this Barbara Graham reaction.
I met Barbara 46 years ago, and she was always a caring close friend - and YES, she was a phenomenal human being !! With love -- Cariños Robert Vitale

Robert Taglairino

June 2, 2011

Barbara was a caring and complicated soul.

She didn't like to cook, but she loved to cook for her friends. It may have been meatloaf and potatoes from a box, but it was made with love – and you could taste it.

She disliked controversy, but loved a thoughtful debate.

As a Methodist, she had issues with the Catholic church, yet she served it for more than 4 decades, loved her seminarians and treasured her time teaching at the Escorial.

She hated chaos, yet she traveled through uprisings and loved the excitement. (She usually sided with troubled rebels and underdogs.)

She was proud to be a thrifty and practical Yankee. But her generous nature belied her practical persona.

From time to time, she'd remind us that she didn't much care for children, yet she found a kindred spirit in me as a child and never let that go. And there was a special place in her heart for her neighbor's children who grew up before her eyes.

In fact, Barbara frequently declared that she didn't even like "people" very much, but she celebrated humanity and passionately loved her friends and students.

And she received much love in return.

Perhaps my "Auntie Barb" wasn't so complicated after all. Surely, we are all better off for the legacy of wisdom and love she left behind.

With love,

"Dos"