Carmen Orynthia Ann Barringer

Carmen Barringer was born in Chakrata, India in 1940 to Sidney Ord-Hume, OBE, Bandmaster of the Northamptonshire Regiment, and Caroline Jackson. In 1944, at the close of World War II the family returned to England for a short time. Throughout her childhood she travelled with her father and stepmother to various military posts including in Austria, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong and Singapore. Eventually she returned to England to earn her State Registered Nurse (SRN) with speciality training in children’s nursing and midwifery.

Carmen was married to Percy P. S. Nylander from 1964 to 1977, living primarily in Ibadan, Nigeria with their two children. During this time, she established the nursing school at the University of Ibadan and was employed as a nurse to the U.S. Ambassador. She also was the facility nurse at the World Bank research farm at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, where she met and married Chuck Barringer in 1978.

Carmen and Chuck moved to Torquay, England and ran their own rest home. When their wanderlust caught up with them, they decided to move to the U.S., arriving in Texas where they were to remain for the next 14 years.

The International School of Islamabad, Pakistan attracted them back overseas in 1994, where Carmen brought her skills to the classroom and cafeteria management. Four years later they moved back to England and became owners of The George Hotel in Darlington, a 400-year-old coaching inn on the river Tees.

The new century found Carmen and Chuck returning to American and home in Texas where they spent the next 22 years, except for a short period operating a resort hotel on the shores of Lake Michigan in Union Pier, Michigan. Houston was really her home in the U.S.

Carmen is survived by her husband and three children: Nicola, Ian, and Tanya, along with five grandchildren.