Barbara (Spinelli) Richardson

Barbara (Spinelli) Richardson WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. — Barbara Ann (Spinelli) Richardson of Weathersfield, Vermont, passed away the morning of April 7, 2021, deeply mourned by her family and friends. Barbara was born on May 12, 1933, to Angelo J. Spinelli and Ann Camarata Spinelli of Upper Montclair, New Jersey. She was older sister to Carol Spinelli Gibbs. Barbara graduated from Montclair High School and from St. Lawrence University (Class of ’54), where she majored in English and was a sister of Kappa Delta sorority. After college, Barbara went to New York City where she worked at K&E Advertising for five years as an associate editor, in the heyday of the ‘Mad Men.’ A lifelong lover of musical theatre, she and her friends went to bargain matinees and saw all the big shows of the 1950s golden age of Broadway. She met Gary Parker Richardson of Springfield, Vermont, when he moved in across the hall, and it was love at first sight. They were married just six weeks later on Oct. 27, 1959, and spent the next nine years mostly in Chicago, where daughter Robin and son Andrew were born in 1964 and 1968, with some time also spent in Schenectady, New York. They returned to Vermont and settled for good in Weathersfield, where son Scott was born in 1970. Barbara was a longtime member of the Weathersfield Historical Society and very much enjoyed volunteering for the annual Frippery Sale and helping at the Dan Foster House. She assisted Edith Fisher Hunter with WHS cataloguing, contributed to The Weathersfield Weekly, and won the town spelling bee at the 1976 bicentennial celebration. Her family was always the most important thing in her life. She and Gary went to New York regularly to visit Andrew’s family and to Ireland to visit Robin’s family. She unfailingly remembered all the important events, sent carefully packed boxes of holiday treats and Christmas presents, and clipped the local papers daily for things of interest to send to everyone in big envelopes. Barbara was warm, witty, intelligent and loving, and she is greatly missed by her family and those who knew her. Her family thanks the special people who helped realize her wish to stay in her own home, close to Gary and all the things that made up her lifetime of happy memories. Sadly predeceased by Gary in 2019 and Scott in 1983, and her sister, Carol, in 2020, Barbara is survived by daughter Robin and grandchildren Laura, Niamh, Michael and Abigail in Kinvara, Co. Galway, Ireland; and by son Andrew, daughter-in-law Emily, and grandchildren Jack and Kate in Port Chester, New York; by her niece and nephew in New Jersey and her niece in North Carolina; and by four grand-dogs who were never forgotten at Christmas. Due to current restrictions, a memorial gathering will be held at a later date. Donations in Barbara’s memory may be made to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – Vermont, Northern New England Chapter, 114 Perimeter Road, Nashau, NH 03063; or to the Springfield Humane Society, 401 Skitchewaug Trail, Springfield, VT 05156. Davis Memorial Chapel in Springfield is assisting with arrangements.