Emily Cunneen (Lynch) Barrett passed away peacefully December 29, 2020 at Cape Cod Hospital ending her long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Though the Covid-19 pandemic restricted visitation from relatives and friends, her daughter, Katy Barrett and Katy’s husband Andrew Langhoff were able to spend the majority of Emily’s last week by her bedside.
Born November 21, 1935, in Cambridge, MA, she was the youngest child of William Stang Lynch and Katharine (Brady) Lynch. She was a native of Fall River, MA where both her parents’ families had lived for many generations. Emily was married to the late Edward Tilton (Ted) Barrett II originally of Milton, MA, for 45 years until his death in December 2005. Together they raised four children.
Emily’s parents moved her and her two older brothers from Fall River to the New York City’s East Village where her father, Bill, served as an English Professor and Chair of the Humanities Department at Cooper Union College. They lived in an apartment once occupied by the poet Walt Whitman. Emily’s parents edited and critiqued several published books on poetry.
The Lynch’s then moved to Bronxville, NY until Katharine became terminally ill. Bill moved the family back to Fall River to be near Katharine’s family. Bill left Cooper Union to become Superintendent of Schools for Fall River. Katharine passed away when Emily was eleven years old. Her mother’s death left a most difficult absence that lasted with Emily always. Her mother’s sister, Agnes, helped fill the maternal role.
With her older brothers away at college, her father sent Emily to board at the all-girls Lincoln School in Providence, RI. She matriculated to Wheaton College in Norton, MA graduating in Class of ’57.
Working in Boston she met her future husband Ted on a blind date. Ted, Harvard College Class of ’55, asked a mutual friend if she could set him up with a date to the 1958 Harvard-Yale football game. His friend suggested he call Emily. They went to the game; were engaged in 1959; and married April 19, 1960 in Fall River. The couple moved to Hingham, MA and the first two of their four children were born at Milton Hospital.
Ted was offered a low-level position in the John F. Kennedy White House. Emily and her family left New England for Washington D.C. in 1963. After Kennedy’s death, the couple had two more children and moved to the Wood Acres neighborhood of Bethesda, MD. Eventually they settled in Potomac, MD. Ted went to law school at night and worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Emily made most of her closest friends in Wood Acres, primarily by meeting other young mothers pushing baby carriages.
She pursued a career working at independent schools. She served in administration at the all-girls Holton Arms School in Bethesda, MD and then served as Director of Admissions at the St. Andrew’s Episcopal School of Potomac, MD. She stopped working after her children were grown.
Emily was active in local theater acting and producing plays. She played Bridge regularly and was an accomplished tennis player as a member of the River Falls Swim and Tennis Club.
Emily came to love the D.C. area and her friendships grew very close. She and Ted raised their children; brought them to sports; swim and tennis teams; piano lessons; put on Christmas pageants, and went on summer vacations to Cape Cod, MA and Little Compton, RI to visit family. There were regular vacations to the Chesapeake Bay, MD and the Outer Banks, NC.
One of Emily’s great loves was acoustic guitar and singing. This usually took place after dinner parties she hosted, or others hosted. She partnered with her close friend Barbara Denison playing and singing folk songs. A member of the Washington Junior League, Emily played guitar and sang as a chorister for the League’s Christmas albums.
Ted retired in 1994. They purchased and restored an old farm house in Harwich Port, MA, the same hamlet that Ted grew up in the summers and where the Barrett’s visited family. Saddened leaving New England decades before, Emily was equally saddened leaving her Washington friends.
The Barrett’s reconnected with family and old friends and made new ones walking the dog. Black labs were a big part of Emily’s life. In the years prior to Washington, they raced Ted and his sister Barbara’s Wianno, Sr. sailboat off Harwich Port and cruised often on Ted’s father’s boat the “Valhalla”.
The greatest aspect of Harwich Port was its attraction to Emily’s children and grandchildren to come visit on the Cape. Grandchildren learned sailing and tennis and all the family spent quality time together and with cousins and friends. Emily was always called “Hummy” by her grandchildren, a sobriquet given to her by her parents when she was a little girl. Emily cherished the time with family most of all and spent the last chapter of her life with her family on Cape Cod. Parkinson’s slowed her mobility immensely depriving her of playing tennis and of so much freedom. But her love of family and friends never waned.
Emily and Ted belonged to the Stone Horse Yacht Club and the Harwich Port Tennis Association both of Harwich Port and Eastward Ho! Country Club, Chatham, MA. They were members of the Harvard Clubs of Cape Cod and Boston and Emily was a member of the Harwich Garden Club.
One of her favorite songs was by John Denver. “Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane; Don't know when I'll be back again; Oh babe, I hate to go.” God’s speed to our mother Emily.
Emily was predeceased by her husband Ted, her brother Bradley Lynch and grandson Matthew Langhoff. She is survived by her daughter Katharine Agnes (Katy) Barrett and her husband Andrew Langhoff of Bronxville, NY; her sons Raymond Francis (Rod) Barrett II and his wife Nancy Barrett of Gaithersburg, MD; Edward Tilton (Ted) Barrett III and his wife Debra Barrett of Bethesda, MD; and Andrew Lynch Barrett and his wife Frances Barrett of Milton, MA. She has eleven grandchildren. Trey and Becky Barrett; Will, Caroline and Elizabeth Langhoff; Daniel, Anna and Olivia Barrett; Katharine, Christopher and Victoria Barrett. She is also survived by her brother James Brady (Shay) Lynch and many beloved nieces and nephews.
Due to Covid-19, a funeral mass at Holy Trinity Church and burial at Mount Pleasant Cemetery both in Harwich Port will be private. A celebration of Emily’s life is planned in the summer of 2021. In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made in Emily’s name to either the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association.
