Eleanor Barry McGahey Schramm

Nov. 15, 1950 - Dec. 1, 2014

Milpitas, CA

Eleanor Barry McGahey Schramm, 64, of Milpitas, Calif. died Dec. 1 after a long and valiant battle with breast cancer. Daughter of Robert Goodloe McGahey Jr. and Virginia Howard McGahey, both deceased, Barry, as she was known to family and friends, was born in Mobile, Ala., and grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and Pittsburgh, Pa. She attended Tulane University, where she met and married her beloved husband, Roger Weldon Schramm, who preceded her in death in 1998. In 2000, she reconnected with her high school boyfriend, John Murrell of Milpitas, with whom she lived for the rest of her life.

Barry held several jobs over the years, employing her organizational skills in a number of small-business offices and, more recently, bringing her sense of style and her gracious manner to Nordstrom in San Jose, Calif.. She was also active in school and charitable organizations. But her great gift and greatest joy was in making a home. Roger’s work as an executive with Brown & Root and Halliburton required regular relocation to offices around the world, and over the years, he, Barry and their two sons lived in Houston, Texas; Singapore; Bahrain; Saudi Arabia; Dubai; Egypt; Scotland; and Anchorage, Alaska. In distant lands, amid foreign cultures, through times of geopolitical tensions, in each of these places, Barry made a new home -- a warm and comfortable haven for Roger and her sons, an attractive and welcoming place for friends and guests. In Milpitas, she did the same, turning a house into a home filled with love and laughter and family, creating memories that will be carried forever by those who loved her.

Barry is survived by two sons, William of Emeryville, Calif. and Robert of San Francisco, Calif.; a brother, Robert G. McGahey III, and his wife, Geeta, of Celo, N.C., and a loving extended family. Graveside services will be held in Houston on Jan. 31. Memorial donations in Barry’s name may be made to the Humane Society Silicon Valley in Milpitas.