Marian Agnes Hochsprung Barney

Marian Agnes Hochsprung Barney (1927-2025)

Marian Agnes Hochsprung Barney, formerly of Lexington and longtime resident of Carleton Willard Village in Bedford, passed away peacefully early in the morning of December 16, a little more than a month after her 98th birthday. In her last days she was surrounded by her loving family, some of whom brought instruments and voices to accompany her on her final journey with music. Nothing could have been more fitting, since music had been central to her life since she was a girl growing up in Yonkers, New York. There she learned to play the piano, and all her life at family gatherings or in her few idle moments she could be heard singing favorite hymns at the keyboard in her beautiful soprano.

After her studies at Russell Sage College and Columbia University, Marian met her husband, Kay Howard Barney, when both were singing in Robert Shaw's Collegiate Chorale in New York City. They were married in 1953, living at first on Long Island before moving to Lexington in 1966, where they maintained their passion for singing with the Hancock Church Choir and the Masterworks Chorale. Highest in their pantheon were Handel and Bach, and on one pilgrimage to Germany in the 1990s they visited all the places where Bach lived and worked. Throughout their nearly quarter century residence at Carleton Willard they played a central role in musical, theatrical and other cultural activities.

Marian was strongly devoted to her family, spending long hours chronicling and documenting the genealogies of her father, George W. Hochsprung, and mother, Agnes Petersen Hochsprung, whose families had immigrated from Germany and Denmark respectively. She avidly kept alive the traditions of her childhood household, Danish flags on the Christmas tree and lots of homemade holiday sweets, including a towering Kransekake. Marian and Kay's own household continued this love of celebration, from birthday parties to picnics on board their sailboat, the Windsong. Marian also loved Cape Cod, and she and Kay were especially happy in the second home they bought on Patuisset Island. The family gathered there for many summers: daughters Nancy, Alice and Sally and son Cary, with their spouses James McCrickard, Scott Newell, Thomas Magliocchetti and María Blanco Esteban, and Marian and Kay's nine grandchildren. Five great-grandchildren have since joined the family. Kay passed away in 2023, shortly after he and Marian had celebrated their seventieth wedding anniversary.

Nobody who knew her will forget Marian's warm, caring smile and the joyful music she shared with all.

A memorial service was held at Carleton Willard on December 18. Instead of flowers, donations in Marian's memory can be made to the following charities:

The Outdoor Church (https://theoutdoorchurch.org/)

Hancock Church Cantata Fund (https://www.hancockchurch.org/hancock-giving/ -- specify "Cantata Fund")

P.E.O. International (https://www.peointernational.org/make-a-gift/)