Barbara Ann McCormick

Barbara was born in Los Angeles to Vincent Edward and Louise (Hebert) Kirkpatrick. She grew up in the West and graduated from Saint Mary’s High School in Albuquerque. She started her undergraduate education at University of New Mexico and met her husband, William (Bill) McCormick, a young Army Air Corps airman, at a serviceman’s dance in 1950. They were engaged soon after (on Groundhog’s Day 1951) and married on July 7, 1951 at San Felipe de Neri Church in Albuquerque. A postcard to her parents from their honeymoon in Durango, Colorado, cited their shared dream for a big family with eight children. Over the next 16 years, they realized this dream as an Air Force family living and raising children in New Mexico, New York, Germany, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Germany and Texas again.

In 1968, the family moved to Bill’s hometown of Philadelphia and settled in the nearby New Jersey suburbs. While there, she finished her degree in Education at Trenton State College and taught first grade for 22 years at Ft. Dix Elementary School. She returned to Albuquerque with Bill in 1994, and lived a joyful retirement together until his death in 2013, when she moved to Coppell to be close to her son, Kevin, and reunited with her dear friend from Air Force days, Elizabeth Lyons, at Christus.

Her Catholic faith, shared with Bill, defined her, and they shared daily prayers and attended daily mass in retirement. Barbara was also a lifelong Democrat, active in her teacher’s union and a supporter of civil rights and women’s causes. When church teachings and her beliefs conflicted, she never wavered in her devotion to both. She envisioned a world where these conflicts—i.e., the role of women in the church and the rights of everyone to personal freedoms—were overcome, and she worked and voted to achieve this. She had a strong work ethic and extraordinary personal strength grounded in her faith.

Barbara loved music and musicals, and loved to sing. She was a voracious reader of newspapers, novels and non-fiction true crime. She also loved to vacation and took many road trips across the United States. She travelled abroad extensively throughout her lifetime—to Lourdes during her time in Wiesbaden, to Ireland to explore her family’s heritage, to Rome, Paris and Florence to visit her children studying and teaching abroad, and, more recently, to Rome again for Mother Theresa’s canonization. More regularly, she traveled around the country to visit her cousins and extended family in Texas and her children and grandchildren everywhere.

Barbara is survived by seven children—Patrick (Guay Tippett), Teresa (Roy Hinton), Katherine (Phil Baca), Kevin (Denise Schmith), Mary (Carlos Storch), Margaret (Phil Newsom), and Ann (David Saybolt). Her daughter, Elizabeth (Stephen Bulmer), died earlier this year. She is also survived by 16 grandchildren—Hannah, Grace, Sam, Will, Tom, Audrey, Hailey, Jack, Mariclare, Maya, Cormac, Lachlan, Henry, Teddy, Elanor, and Riley, and one great-grandchild, Ellis, and many cousins, nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband of 62 years, her parents, and both of her siblings (Shirley K. Cross and John E. Kirkpatrick).

A funeral mass will be held at 2 pm on Saturday, October 7, 2023 at Christus St. Joseph, 1201 E Sandy Lake Rd, Coppell. A burial is planned later this year in Santa Fe. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, 5900 Delhi Road, Mount St. Joseph, OH 45051, or St. Vincent de Paul Society, 4120 Menaul Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110.