Barbara Streetman

Barbara was a long-time resident of the Monterey Peninsula. She was born in Mount Kisco, New York, but came to Monterey at the age of four when her parents moved to California. She attended Bay View Elementary School and graduated from Monterey High School (1957). When Barbara arrived in Monterey, she had the good fortune to land in a neighborhood rich in ethnic diversity where her playmates and schoolmates had interesting and different names such as Hatano, Favalora, Morgan, Sumida, Jackson, Garcia, and Yee. She loved sampling the foods at her friends homes and learning about their customs. She learned at an early age to appreciate differences and to look beyond appearances. And she developed a keen sensitivity for “misfits” and “outsiders” that stayed with her all her life.

As a young adult, Barbara volunteered at the local USO branch where she later became a program manager. Her job was to coordinate volunteers and organize events to help entertain the young service members stationed at the nearby military bases (Fort Ord, the Defense Language Institute, and the Naval Air Facility). She organized dances and outings for them, exhibitions of local amateur artists, and talent shows. She learned to be a good listener, offering a sympathetic ear, a cheerful smile and heartfelt encouragement to young men facing the uncertainty of the Viet Nam war. While holding auditions for one of her music talent shows, she met her soon-to-be husband, Ashley, who was stationed at the DLI. He got the gig; she got the man. They married in 1966, and children followed shortly thereafter. In 1969 they moved to Maine so Ashley could complete his education and explore employment opportunities. They loved the beauty of Maine, but after three years of driving in winter snow, they longed for sunny California. In 1972 they returned to the peninsula, settling in Pacific Grove where they raised their children. In 1987 they moved to Monterey.

Barbara treasured her role as a homemaker. An unpretentious and quietly spiritual person, she had a firm belief in the power of love to shape lives and always tried to see the good in people. She understood the importance of home life and made a conscious decision to be a loving presence in her home for her family. Children in the neighborhood loved to come to the Streetman house with its large backyard where they could play and always find someone who would listen to them.

Family came first for Barbara, but she always found time to pursue creative interests. Beneath her quiet exterior dwelt an inquisitive mind, a sensitive artistic temperament, and a playful sense of humor that spilled over into different aspects of her daily life. She entertained the children with pancakes shaped like the continents of the world and finger-paintings they could create with chocolate pudding. She wrote stories for them about Olin the three-headed dragon, about the Alphabet Thief who stole all the letters of the alphabet, and about the Wily Wizard who turned the world upside down. She believed that everyone possessed a creative talent of one sort or another, and she encouraged the children to explore theirs...and not be afraid to “color outside the lines”.

Barbara also had a more serious and practical side. A naturally gifted, self-taught artist, she loved working in various media - acrylics, ink, and especially clay. She took delight in the spontaneity and surprise that each work offered. She was especially skilled at faux art. In the mid 1970s at the tail end of the “pet rock” craze she used her skill to create her own line tagged “Could You Love a California Rock?”. These were rocks that she applied clay faces to and fired. She then painted the faces to match the color and texture of the rocks: sleeping rocks, laughing rocks, singing rocks, etc. She sold them in local gift shops and at crafts fairs. However, she had to stop when demand for her creations became too great. (She refused to raise her prices.) She also designed greeting card ideas that she sold to publishers and experimented with her own line of cards. In 1977 with her friend Susan Edeen she co-authored an unusual booklet on how to use spices to create decorative crafts items. Against the odds, the intrepid duo persuaded the Shilling McCormick Company to publish the booklet as “Spice Up your Crafts”.

Barbara had always considered art to be an avocation for her, not a profession. However, at the prompting of friends, in 1984 she had a small showing of her more serious works at the Carl Cherry Foundation in Carmel, CA. Several commissions followed with the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History to do background illustrations for their exhibits: their Dinosaurs Alive/Dynamation Exhibit (1989), their Eskimo Artifacts Exhibit (1991), and their “Celebration of Bats” exhibit (1992) for which she used her faux art talent to create a large simulated bat cave complete with bats.

Always seeking the unusual, Barbara took delight in creating dramatic and sometimes fanciful contexts to complement the museum’s science oriented presentations. One of her more interesting works was an interactive mural for the museum’s Children’s Touch Gallery. The mural was an 8-by-15 foot mixed media work that made use of plaster, paper mache and acrylics and took up an entire wall. It featured mainly native creatures and terrain and had a bit of fantasy, including a gopher that could be pulled in and out of its burrow by its tail and paper mache fish that stuck to the wall with magnets.

One activity that Barbara truly enjoyed was to create colorful holiday window paintings for some of the shops in Pacific Grove, particularly for Alpha Stationers where she worked part-time for several years. She created whimsical and playful scenes: Santa and his elves ...penguins and snowmen.....black cats and pumpkins... all designed to amuse and delight. Each year she looked forward to offering something new and unusual that would surprise the passersby and make them smile.

As the years passed, however, illness began to take its toll. She stopped taking commissions and began to confine her work to pieces for friends and for her own pleasure. Her cardiologist had encouraged her to get regular exercise, so being very practical, she committed herself to strenuous yard work and a 3-year DIY remodel of her house which she completed with Ashley in 2010. Double-bypass surgery followed in the same year. At this point she retired to what she called her sanctuary - the house she and Ashley had painstakingly remodeled at the end of a quiet cul de sac in Monterey. Backed up to the woods and surrounded by oaks and pines, it provided the solitude she needed. She spent many hours in her garden where she could talk to the bluejays, watch the crows and hawks, and scold the occasional deer that hopped over her fence to eat her roses. Then in 2015 a major stroke. Faced with this new challenge, she battled courageously. Despite her difficulties, she always tried to maintain her sense of humor and to show her sincere appreciation for the dedicated therapists and caregivers who helped her in this difficult stage of her life. When words failed her, she would show her gratitude with a heartfelt gaze and a gentle touch. She spent the last years of her life surrounded by family and cared for in the home she loved, each room of which reflects her creative touch.

Barbara will be missed. She will be remembered for her generosity, her warm sense of humor, her creative spark, and her loving heart.

Barbara is survived by her husband of 51 years, Ashley, and her two sons Brian and Jason.

“Barbara, your love has touched our hearts in the deepest possible way. It sustains us in our journey and lights our way.”

In lieu of donations or flowers, those who wish to celebrate Barbara’s life and spirit are encouraged to embrace as she did the joy found in simple everyday acts of loving kindness.