MARY ELLIN BARRETT

1926 - 2022

BARRETT--Mary Ellin. Mary Ellin Berlin Barrett died peacefully on July 16, 2022 at the age of 95. A life-long New Yorker, she was the daughter of Ellin and Irving Berlin. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College in 1949. After college she started her career as a researcher at Time Magazine. She was an editor at Glamour and Vogue and wrote book reviews and features for Cosmopolitan. Her four books included three novels, Castle Ugly, An Accident of Love, and American Beauty, and a memoir of her father, Irving Berlin: A Daughter's Memoir. She married writer and journalist Marvin Barrett in 1952. He died in 2006. She is survived by a sister, Linda Emmet; four children, Elizabeth Matson, Irving Barrett, Mary Ellin Lerner, and Katherine Swett; two sons-in-law, Sasha Matson and Benjamin Swett; five grandsons, Peter Matson, James Matson, Benjamin Lerner, Nicky Swett, and William Swett; and a great- grandson, Jude Lerner, born in June of this year. Another sister, Elizabeth Peters, and a granddaughter, Rachel Swett, predeceased her. Mary Ellin loved books, opera, films, and conversation with her many relatives and friends. She remained interested in art and politics until the day she died. In the autumn there will be a memorial service to celebrate her life.