Memories of Wray Marie Barr

In memory of

Wray Marie Barr

Lebanon, IL, USA

December 3, 1938 - April 19, 2018

Dec 3, 1938 - Apr 19, 2018

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Raymond Avevor

Shared a heart

Raymond Avevor

May my good catholic faithful woman rest well in the hands 🌸 🌼 🌸 of God our maker till we meet again.. I really cares about you..

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Raymond Avevor

2006, Accra, Ghana

Wray's Invitation Documents to Raymond (Part)

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Raymond Avevor

2006, Accra, Ghana

Wray's Invitation Letter to Raymond

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Raymond Avevor

12, Accra, Ghana

Once upon a time I Raymond Avevor from Ghana was in yahoo's Catholic Chatroom just to get embraced with our catholic friends globally to know how our faith are unique irrespective of our culture and traditions.
I chatted with so many people but there was only one person who have been unique and a blessing to me through out my entire life is Madam Wray Marie Barr.
We have become a very close friend to the extend every day she have to hear my voice aside our daily chats.
The friendship grow for more than 2 years and she decided to invite me to vist her at Las Vegas since her old age cannot permit her to visit me here in Ghana.
The kind of love she have for me even made me talked to some of her children any time they visit her. Madam Wray is so eager to be talking to my mother also from Ghana so she have become a friend to my mother too. Above all, since she cannot visit me she sent me an invitation to come and spend one of my holidays with her and unfortunately the documents she sent to me took so many months to be received here in Ghana and this has caused her some much unhappiness because school have resumed and it will take another one year and that will be when i complete my course since i was in my final year.
Hmmmmmm! I'm full of sorrow to finally see her obituary after so many years of searches to reach her even live or dead, she didn't tell me that she was so sick and the only thing I could remember was she was not feeling well so her son will come and take of her .I remember talking to one of her daughter and son, and that was my last time I talked to her.
I believe that I will one day see her grave before we meet again since it is her wish for us to meet. I still have the document she sent to me in my achieve. I would share this document in the photos to be seen.
I would be grateful if any of her children can contact me to share an information with him or her this is very important.
email: raymondavevor@gmail.com

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Raymond Avevor

My condolences to the entire family for this wonderful mum's demised.
hmmmmmm!
it is 23:53hr here in Ghana I cannot sleep because of her after 10 years of her demise..
May your soul rest in peace we shall meet again.

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Ray Owens

Thank you for all the wonderful stories and pictures of Aunt Marie. They brought back a lot of great memories. Every time I saw her or talked with her on the phone she would always say to me "I love you so much". I loved you so much Aunt Marie. Thank you for helping me in Vegas years ago and for your kind words throughout the years.

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ElaJean Byrd

2017

Grammy loved all her babies! They were always so happy to come visit!!!

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Amanda Osburn

2015

Michelle Barr

Mom was amazing, for sure, and happy stories abound, but what I admired the most and hope to emulate someday is her ability to “see JESUS “ in everyone she met. It didn’t matter your status in life, whether you were ill or well, rich or poor... no one was beneath her or above her and she was not afraid. Mom found that spark of goodness, that light in everyone. May her journey be radiant and swift. Love you Mom.

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Michelle Barr

1968, Colorado, USA

Treasured Lamp painted by Mom

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Michelle Barr

1968, Colorado, USA

Mom was an artist, like her maternal grandmother, and loved to be creative. Here again, she could make something out of nothing. On one of Papa’s travels he brought back a pair of wooden shoes for mom and Aunt Kak from Holland. When I was about eight or so he took one shoe from each pair and made my cousin and me a matching lamp. My mother painted my lamp; I still have this treasured lamp. (photo to follow)She also made me a vanity out of some old table, staining it to match my bedroom set and making a “skirt” for it. Mom would often make us matching outfits.

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Michelle Barr

1993, Newport Beach, CA, USA

Karli, Jason and Grammy aka "Gramcracker"

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Michelle Barr

1993, Newport Beach, CA, USA

Karli, Jason and I took mom to Newport Beach, CA, one weekend so she could visit the ocean. It was a wonderful weekend! To see mom telling the kids about the fiddler crabs and such reminded me of the time she took Fritz and I to the beach in Jacksonville, FL. We also took a harbor cruise in which I remember mom telling one of the kids to look towards the horizon so that you won’t feel sea sick. It was a very happy weekend as you can tell by her and Jason’s faces. (picture to follow) She loved how Jason always called her “Gramcracker”.

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Michelle Barr

1981, Las Vegas, NV, USA

In July 1981, Mom was present for the birth of her first grandchild, Karli. All during my pregnancy she would refer to the baby as "she" or "Karli Anne", which I had chosen for a girl’s name. When the baby was born and the midwife, who thought the baby would be a boy, exclaimed “it’s a girl!” my mom said, “I told you she was our Karli” and from the moment Mom held Karli, that was it. She was “Grammy”. I still have the hospital booties and cap she wore into the delivery room.

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Michelle Barr

1938, USA

My Mom was a great cook! She loved different cultures and would learn to cook dishes from friends from those different cultures. In Savannah, she had a friend, Rosie, who was from Hawaii who taught her to make my favorite: Sukiyaki. While in California she learned from a friend to make Chilaquiles which was always a favorite. In Pueblo she learned to make our favorite sopapillas. Note: Everything was a Favorite when it came to her cooking. I was positive mom could feed an army on one chicken! The first day she would make Chicken Kiev or the BEST fried chicken ever! The second and third day she would make a chicken stock that she would use for Chicken and dumplings and chicken soup. We ate all sorts of vegetables when growing up, as well as fish and shellfish. When available, sugar Cane and coconut were not strangers for our home. Her homemade rolls, cornbread, hush puppies and biscuits compare to none. She cooked by hand, not measuring, something I cannot do. I asked her to write down her recipes for me so I could continue to make them for the kids and she took the time to translate her measurements to those I, the non-cook, could understand, for example: “a handful of” changed to “1 cup of”, etc. Mom also added this recipe requirement: “Michelle, the first ingredient is love…”. She had faith that I could cook. I did love to bake and we would bake cookies for neighbors during the holidays. She was known in our neighborhood for her macaroni salad and German chocolate cake. (She would always save a piece of the German Chocolate cake for our neighbor, Robert, he LOVED it so much!) No one can ever replace her cooking. I’m sure we can all agree how much we will and have missed it. It will never be the same.

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Michelle Barr

1955, United States

Mom loved music, all music, from Tchaikovsky to the Beatles and everything in between. She shared this love with all her children. I remember listening to "Peter and the Wolf" when we lived in Denver. The Nutcracker at Christmas. Wayne and Karli especially liked the Nutcracker. Mom loved to dance! The Charleston, jitterbug, waltzes…she could do them all. I remember her teaching Fritz to dance. She also enjoyed plays and musicals. She once took me to see “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Union Plaza. It was Fritz who loved the "Fiddler on the Roof" play and was able to take her to see it, it was their favorite and a very special night for them. Fritz took her to dinner and the play. She was so happy.

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Michelle Barr

1971, Henderson, NV, USA

And Wayne makes Six

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Michelle Barr

1971, Henderson, NV, USA

Six months after barely making it home from Vietnam Dad was being deployed back. Mom was worried Dad might not make it back this time, so Dad decided to separate from the Marine Corps, after 14 years of service, and we settled in his home state of Colorado. In 1969 our brother, Robert Loran, was born in Pueblo, CO. In 1971, we moved to Henderson, NV, where our youngest brother, David Wayne, was born. Mom now had a family of six.

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Michelle Barr

1967, Haddonfield, NJ, USA

In May 1967 Dad returned from Vietnam, barely, and he was stationed in Philadelphia and we lived in Haddonfield, NJ. A funny story she liked to share happened in Haddonfield. Of course, it wasn’t funny at the time. My mom decided to have a crab boil and bought live crabs, well when she put them in the pot the poor little guys were hanging onto the sides…she was crying, I was crying and it was “mayhem”… Later she was able to ask Papa how he cooked the crabs alive and he explained that you put them to sleep by rubbing their tummy. So, if you ever cook live crabs, rub their tummy to put them to sleep before throwing them in the pot.

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Michelle Barr

1965, Savannah, GA, USA

After spending a couple of years stationed in Yermo, CA, Dad was once again deployed to Vietnam and once again we were moved to Savannah to be near her parents. I remember this time very well. Mom was very active with the USO and would plan parties and participate in parades. We once visited a destroyer that was at port and she took us onboard with her to have lunch with the sailors. I remember being so excited to be on the ship. We also participated in the Martin Luther King March by riding on the USO Float. In those days we spent time at the USO with Mom listening to the music of the sixties, I enjoyed this time very much, everyone was nice. She also liked to take us down to the “wharf” with its cobble stone roads and to the Pirates’ House. I remember we would sit in the circle parks on the bench and she would feed the squirrels, all animals loved her. They would come right up to her. She loved Savannah.

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Michelle Barr

1960, Charleston, SC, USA

Mom met dad at a dance party in Charleston, SC. He was a Marine Corps Drill Instructor stationed at Parris Island, SC. They were married on October 8, 1960. July 1961, I was born in CA and by July 1962 he was taking Mom and I to Savannah to be with her parents while he did his first tour in Vietnam. My brother, Fritz, was born shortly after his deployment. When my brother was 15-18 months old and I about a year older my mother decided to travel to Grand Junction to visit her in-laws. She would share the story of making this trip by train with two children under the age of three. She had to change trains in Chicago and was ever so happy that I was contained (she had me on a leash with a harness so that I couldn’t run off) because the train station was so hectic. People gave her looks, but safety was more important to her. She arrived in Grand Junction safely with her two children and waited for Dad to return from Vietnam. She was close to my paternal grandparents and my grandfather liked to tease her about her first visit to snow. Mom used to take off her shoes so that she wouldn’t slip on the ice. She continued this practice when we lived in Colorado City, CO, when I was eight to ten years old.

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Michelle Barr

Georgia, USA

Mom was a “Daddy’s girl”. Crabbing with her dad was one of her favorite things to do. Another trait she shared with her dad was their kindness to animals. She would share the story of the hurt raccoon her dad, AKA Papa, brought home and was nursed to health and became a family pet of sorts. Her mother, AKA Nanny, didn’t like having the raccoon in the house and “Rikki” (I believe the raccoon's name was) knew Nanny didn’t like him and would mess with her hair and other such mischief. The girls thought it was funny, Nanny didn't, of course. In our time, I cannot even begin to count how many puppies and kittens Mom brought back to life after a difficult birth from one of our family pets. She always stayed calm and knew just what to do.

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Michelle Barr

1938, Tybee Island, GA, USA

Our mom, Wray Marie, was born on Tybee Island, a channel island off the coast from Savannah, GA. Her father was in the Merchant Marines at the time. Mom’s birthplace sparked her lifelong love for coastal beaches and light houses. Catherine, her sister, was born a few years later. After the war began the girls went to live in Summertown/Midville, GA, with their paternal grandparents and their aunts who were close to their age. Her Grandfather was a blacksmith and the family farmed. She was fond of this time of her life.

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