Rebecca Howe (Magill) Barnett

Born in Jinan, China on May 1, 1922, to Orrin Rankin Magill and Ellen Howe Bell, she spent her early years in Shanghai, China, where she attended the Shanghai American School. She finished high school in White Plains, NY and attended nursing school at Mary Washington and the University of Virginia. She married H. DeWitt Barnett on September 1, 1945 and had five children, Gail, Peter, John, Andrew and James, spending 31 years as a mother. She organized the move of the family to Tokyo, Japan in 1965, then to Hong Kong in 1971. While in Hong Kong, she and DeWitt were involved in people-to-people friendship programs with China. In 1982 after moving to Honolulu, HI, as an empty nester, she embarked on her first formal job to organize and expand an innovative healthcare program in Honolulu called Nursing Home without Walls. She and DeWitt moved to Friends Homes West in Greensboro, NC in June, 1994. We will always remember Rebecca’s kind nature and her thoughtfulness of others.

Rebecca was preceded in death by her husband DeWitt and daughter Gail. She is survived by son Peter (Barbara Watson), two children Christopher, Ryan and his grandson Jacob DeWitt; son John (Kerry Mills) his son Miles; son Andrew (Nena Escobar); son James (Mei Hua Lin); and her brothers Frank Magill and Sam Magill.

The sons will be planning a burial of their mother’s ashes in Dublin, Virginia at the New Dublin Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

We would like to especially thank the staff of Friends Homes West, in particular the Healthcare department, who helped to make Rebecca’s final two years as comfortable as possible.

Online condolences may be made at www.haneslineberryfhnorthelms.com.