Barbara Martin

Barbara Phinney Martin, a long time Cape Cod resident, passed away on September 19, 2017 at the Royal Nursing Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She was 91. She had been a resident of the nursing home since 2009 and died following a brief illness.

She was born in Milton, Massachusetts on February 26, 1926, to Berton Vesper and Priscilla (Kellogg) Phinney, Sr. Her family moved to nearby Newton Centre when Barbara was a young girl.

Barbara was a 1943 graduate of Newton High School, where one of her classmates was jazz impresario George Wein who founded the Newport Jazz Festival. She attended Boston University after high school. During World War II she also worked with her father at Stone & Webster Engineering as a secretary. What Barbara didn’t know at the time was that many of the documents she was asked to prepare and deliver to clients were part of the government’s Manhattan Project. She only realized the part she played when she received a certificate at the end of the war thanking her for her service.

She married William (Bill) Winfield Martin of Ohio in August 1952, after the two met one summer on Cape Cod while Bill was attending Harvard Business School. Their union produced three children. They divorced in 1979.

Barbara was an avid reader and instilled her love of reading in her children. She also loved playing Bridge, gardening, and crafts. In her later years, Barbara also enjoyed playing trivia games with her daughters when they would visit her at the nursing home. Inevitably, Barbara won almost every game.

She was a former member of the Massachusetts Mayflower Society. Before the advent of personal computers and genealogy websites, Barbara and her daughter, Patti, scoured courthouses and cemeteries to track their lineage back to Thomas and Joseph Rogers who came from England to America on The Mayflower.

Barbara was preceded in death by her parents and brother, Berton Vesper Phinney, Jr. She is survived by her children Michael William (Mary Virginia) Martin of Houston, Texas, Mary Martin Marenberg of Toledo, Ohio, and Patricia Ann Martin of Hyannis, Massachusetts; her six grandchildren, Edward William Martin, Mary Regina (Alex) Skipp, Joseph Casey Martin, and Patrick Francis Martin of Houston, Texas; Mary Elizabeth Martin of South Windsor, Connecticut; and Mary Grace (Ryan) Held of Wichita, Kansas; her two great-grandchildren, Naomi Martin and Mary Pearl Skipp of Houston, Texas; her brother Alcott Kellogg (Martha) Phinney of Needham, Massachusetts; as well as her niece and nephews and their children.

A funeral service will be held on Monday, October 2 at 12:00pm, at Doane Beal & Ames on W. Main Street in Hyannis. Visitation with the family will be held prior to the service beginning at 9:00am. Barbara will then be buried with her parents at Beechwood Cemetery in Centerville.

The family wishes to thank the exceptional staff of Fidelis Hospice who made this difficult time of transition more bearable, and the staff of the Royal Nursing Center in Falmouth for the care Barbara received as a resident over the past eight years. Memorial contributions may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Barbara will be dearly missed by her children and extended family.

Arrangements under the direction of Doane Beal & Ames, Hyannis, MA.