Barbara Ann Schwartz

Born on December 22, 1930, Barbara - not Barb! - passed away gently and quietly on July 25 at an adult family home in Seattle. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, she was her high school valedictorian. At 21, in an act of considerable bravery, she broke from a complicated family environment, caught a train for Minneapolis, and became a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. It was fate, she said, that led her to meet Captain Eugene Schwartz on a DC-3 flight out of Portland. They married two years later and celebrated 53 anniversaries prior Gene's passing in 2008. Early on, they lived in a variety of places from Minneapolis to Tokyo. Their son Douglas was born in Seattle in 1961. By 1966 they settled in what became the family home Mercer Island (apart from a year spent in Burma). The 1950s were a different era, and Northwest's company policy at the time required Barbara's retirement after marriage. She devoted herself to a wide variety of volunteer efforts, particularly at the Seattle Art Museum and later in local Republican politics (had she been aware she would have been deeply appalled by the current administration). A person of strong opinion, she was widely read and even more widely travelled. While a devastating stroke combined with dementia effectively took away her last five years, Barbara enjoyed a long, interesting, and blessed life - she would have been the first to say so. She was beautiful, graceful, elegant, and loving. Above all, and to her core, she was kind. Barbara is survived by her son Doug, her daughter-in-law Lejla, and her cherished granddaughter Lara. At her request there was no funeral service. Friends are invited to celebrate her life from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 22, at Doug and Lejla's home in North Seattle. Remembrances may be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America or the American Stroke Foundation.