Dorothy “Joan” Barr

Dorothy “Joan” Barr PROCTORSVILLE, Vt. — Dorothy “Joan” Barr, 89, died Tuesday morning, May 26, 2020, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. She was born Dec. 30, 1930, in Oxford, England, the daughter of Thomas and Ellen (Overton) Yates. Joan grew up in Oxford enduring the bombing raids and rationing of World War II. She met Leon “Shorty” Barr while he was stationed with the U.S. Army in England where they married on Jan. 3, 1953. They began their family in England with the birth of their first daughter, Karen, and in 1954, they journeyed back to Shorty’s hometown of Perkinsville, Vermont. Here, Shorty’s family and friends welcomed Joan into their typical Vermont, close-knit group becoming her treasured lifelong friends. They moved a few times to various locations to accommodate Shorty’s work, but never far. When they moved to the village of Cavendish in 1965, they brought old friends into their new community, joining old and new friends. As so often is the case, their old friends were never left behind. In 1992 upon retirement, they moved to their camp on Lake Hortonia that their son, Tom, had renovated into their dream home. For over 30 years each weekend, theirs was the Lake Hortonia campfire around which meals and stories were shared with family and friends. Following Shorty’s death, Joan moved to Proctorsville to be closer to her family. Joan worked at Mack Molding many years. She later enjoyed working part time at the Springfield Hospital Coffee Shop where she still recalled specific lunches that many patrons ate daily. Joan was a caring woman who enjoyed being a caregiver for the elderly who needed assistance. Her fingers would fly over her knitting needles to create cherished hats and scarves for family and friends. True to her love of babies, she spent years knitting caps to donate to hospital nurseries. She also enjoyed animals and kept her feeders full to view the birds through her windows. Joan was predeceased by her husband, Leon, in 1994; and daughter, Karen, in 2017. She is survived by her children, Elaine Wood (Brian) of Ludlow, Vermont, Julie Barr (John Predom) of Island Pond, Vermont, and Tom Barr of Proctorsville, Vermont; nine grandchildren, Heidi, Chad, Melanie, Zachary, Josh, Austin, Hunter, Emily and Dylan; many great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Services for Joan will be determined at a future date. Condolences to her family may be made in an online guest book at knightfuneralhomes.com. Contributions in her memory may be made to your local veterans organization or humane society.