Kathryn K Bartfield

Born in Richmond, Indiana, she was the daughter of artists Clara Winston King and John Millikin King and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. Mrs. Bartfield was a graduate of George Washington University, where she majored in art. Shortly after graduation, she began her long and noteworthy career at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., first working at the information desk and later serving as secretary to the Director, J. Carter Brown. Over the ensuing four decades, she rose through the ranks to become Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees, retiring after a remarkable fifty-year tenure.

A passionate and adventurous traveler, Mrs. Bartfield and her husband journeyed widely, traveling throughout Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, South America and Cuba well into her eighties. She was a lifelong supporter of the arts, visiting art museums throughout the world and collecting paintings and prints. She was a keen observer of politics and an avid consumer of the news and was able to converse knowledgeably about current and historical events. A devoted lover of animals, especially cats, she once even considered changing her major from art to zoology, and one of her first jobs was working with research monkeys at a facility in Maryland. An enthusiastic Washington Nationals fan, she attended home games with great pleasure. Mrs. Bartfield also participated for over 30 years in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging of the National Institutes of Health, contributing meaningfully to ongoing scientific research. She had a kind, loving, and calm demeanor and a wry, observant sense of humor, and enjoyed reading mysteries and solving crossword puzzles.

She is survived by her beloved husband of fifty years, Ira Bartfield; her daughters, Elizabeth (Louis) DeFeo of Central Valley, New York, and Dinah Gieske and her husband Terrance Swords of Brooklyn NY; her stepson, John ( Pamela) Bartfield of Redwood City, California; and her grandchildren, Jemma DeFeo, Maisy Swords, and Ruby Swords.

A celebration of her life is planned for early spring.