Barbara Joyce Price

Barbara Joyce Price In loving memory of Barbara Price, who passed away peacefully March 11, 2008, from late effects of polio. She was 75, and had lived in San Mateo since 1961. Barbara was born in 1932 to Pearl and Roland Peterson, Americans of Swedish ancestry living in Minnesota. She grew up in the Morningside neighborhood of Minneapolis. At the age of 17, Barbara was stricken by polio. After 10 months of hospitalization and physical therapy, she was able to return to high school with much of her physical ability recovered and graduate with her class. She remained determined to live without compromising with her disability. She received a bachelor of science in speech pathology from the University of Minnesota in 1954, and a master of arts in speech pathology and audiology from Stanford University in 1958. At Stanford she met and married James Price (deceased 1981). The couple settled in Burlingame and then San Mateo. Barbara raised two children and worked for many years as a speech therapist for the Easter Seals Society. She was a creative hostess and chef, and in the 1980s took up genealogy as a hobby. After her retirement in 1990, she became an active participant in the Memoirs Writers Workshop in San Mateo, eventually publishing "Hopscotch, a Morningside Childhood." She also coordinated the local Post-Polio Connection support group for polio survivors. Barbara, whose daughter-in-law is a diplomat in the US Foreign Service, took many opportunities to visit her son's family in foreign countries, including Brazil, Estonia, Germany, Greece, and most recently Denmark, where she spent two months last spring. Her grace and steadiness touched many people. She is survived by sister, Carolyn Boodman; daughter, Kirstan Price; son and daughter-in-law, Anders Price and Sandra Kaiser; and grandchildren, Marina and Nicholas Price. Memorial contributions can be made to Mission Hospice, 1900 O'Farrell St., Suite 200, San Mateo, CA 94403 or Post-Polio Health International, 4207 Lindell Blvd., #110, St. Louis, MO 63108.