Barbara Murphy

At her residence on Monday, December 30, 2024, Barbara passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 82. Predeceased by her parents Hugh Preston Murphy and Barbara (Donovan) and her brothers and sisters Wenceslas Murphy (Hughette), Claud Murphy, John Murphy (Ellen), Rickard Murphy (Francine), Hugh Francis Murphy (Solange), Margaret Mitchell (Ken), June Butler, Jim Butler (Becky), Denny Butler (Pat); Barbara is survived by her many nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews.

Barbara was born in Beaupré, Québec, in 1942. She attended Mount Saint Vincent University, receiving a Bachelor of Education in 1965 and returning to Montreal to teach in 1970. She returned to Halifax in 1975 to teach French primarily at Cunard Junior High. After 35 years of teaching, she and her sister, June, moved to Queensland, Nova Scotia.

Barbara loved to travel and drove across Canada three times with June. She loved photography, crosswords, gardening, music, movies, bird watching, and sitting in the front room to watch the tide come and go on the Little Beach.

After moving to the Berkeley Bedford in 2018, Barbara was thrilled to be speaking French and Spanish again with other residents and had a large social network with whom she enjoyed playing games, bingo, and going on the occasional day trips, all the while vehemently refusing to play bridge or join exercise classes. Even though her dementia started to take her short term memory, Barbara was her usual quick and witty self and loved to sit and chat with family and friends.

Many thanks to the wonderful staff at The Berkeley Bedford for their wonderful care of Barbara.

Service will be held at Snow’s Funeral Home in Halifax on Saturday, January 11 at 10AM.

Donations can be made to Alzheimer’s Nova Scotia - https://alzheimer.ca/ns/en/donate