Monday, March 19, 2018

H. Josephine Barber Stewart, my beloved grandmother


H. Josephine Stewart
1893-1992
my maternal grandmother

The Providence Journal, prob 28 Jan 1992
found in my family Bible, now in my possession
Like many obituaries in most families, clipped newspaper articles have eliminated the name of the newspaper and the date it was published. This time, I was lucky to find this same obituary (in typed text format) at the subscription site, GenealogyBank on 28 Jan 2018. My mother must have provided the information as it is accurate but quite sparse. My grandmother lived a long time after both her husband (1955) and her son (1951). She also outlived all of the people on her Barber side, including her siblings and her niece. She was 98 years 3 months 15 days old.

My grandmother lived with my parents for a number of years until she began to fail and fall even though she had a walker. The nursing home mentioned is where she fell asleep and did not wake up. I was glad that this obituary mentioned the clubs she belonged to as, like her daughter, my mother, she was an artist.

She would have been pleased to know that her great granddaughter would have two sons. 

Hannah was her first name and she hated it. Even her gravestone, says H. Josephine on it. She was named for her grandmother, Hannah Josephine Taugee/Tourjee/Tourgee (1847-1881) wife of James Albert Barber. That Josephine was said to look just like my grandmother and that's why she was named for her, plus she was almost born on the same day of the month of October and also died at the end of January. She was only 33 years 3 months 9 days old at her death.

Jo rests at Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic, CT with her husband Evans and her son, Evans Stewart, Jr.

Not a day goes by that I don't miss her and am grateful that my daughter remembers her. 

#52Ancestors #11

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