Kevin (Cub) passed away June 15, 2023, aged 64, at St. Paul’s Hospital in Palliative Care after a heroic battle with Glioblastoma brain cancer. He was born in Saskatoon, SK on August 31st, 1958 and grew up with his parents Mary and Donald Barrett and four brothers, David, Bruce, Dan, and Mark.
Kevin was predeceased by his mother, Mary Barrett-Lenz (2022), father, Don Barrett (2000), brothers, David (2004) and Mark (2009), and stepfather, John Lenz (2014).
Kevin is survived by his wife, Jackie Almeida, daughters, Jessica Motley (Paul), Amy Hood (Brady), Jayne Drucker (Scott), stepchildren, Josiah Prouten (Chad) and Giuseppe Almeida. brothers, Bruce Barrett (Elaine), Dan Barrett (Debbie), sister-in-law, Dolores (Mark) and eight nieces and their families. As a Papa, he will be lovingly remembered by seven grandchildren: Oliva, Luke, Billie, Dottie, Arri, Zya and Cooper.
Kevin went to John Lake elementary school, Walter Murray Collegiate high school (1978) and graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor of Music in music education (1993).
Kevin was the youngest of five boys. His family was central to his identity. He was the baby (where his nickname came from bear “cub”) of the family and looked up to his brothers. He was a busy kid and “wanted to do everything” including lacrosse, baseball, hockey, football, music lessons, art lessons, cub scouts, Saskatoon Boys Choir, and more. His mother and father encouraged and supported his passions.
He was nostalgic his entire adult life of those years at home, of his mother's baking, fresh bread and treats that he became an excellent baker himself and his famous banana bread was the fuel for kids on ringette tournaments and his children and grandchildren praised his Mickey Mouse pancakes.
Kevin started playing piano at the age of five. His mother, a concert pianist and his father a concert band trumpet player. He looked up to his mother who gave up her dreams of pursuing this career to raise a family as being central to his drive to be a musician himself. It seemed natural that music was going to be his passion in life. In his teen years, he started composing songs and began playing in bands with friends, after his guitarist brother (Mark) talked their father into buying a Yamaha combo organ and amp for him. Playing in a band and travelling the country composing music would be his passion and music would be his life. Many of his closest friendships were developed in these formative years Greg Meldrum, Craig Finley, Ron Grace (2013), Wayne Pearson, Jeff Surtees and Ron Clemens were nearest and dearest to his heart.
He was involved in the Saskatoon music scene since 1978 when he started playing keyboards and lead vocals in the band Tornado Warning. They did extensive touring around Western Canada and recorded some of his earlier compositions. Throughout the 1980’s he would play in bands such as The Warning, Gallery, Dash riprock, Arena, Los Tornados and a later rendition of Tornado Warning. In 1991 he started his own band under his own name, recording his own songs and releasing a CD “Making Movies” under the name Kevin Barrett Band which shared the stage with Bryan Adams, Steve Miller, Extreme, Sass Jordan, Colin James among others. The CD was picked up by Tomcat records and in 1994 two singles off that album were played across Canada; “Dance to the beat of my heart” reaching #3 on the futures top 40 list and “I Don’t know why”.
He married Lauren Vaillant on June 14th, 1986. Kevin and Lauren had three children, Jessica (1986), Amy (1988) and Jayne (1995). If there was anything he loved more than music, it was his three daughters. He was not just their dad, he was their mentor, teacher and most notably their coach. Kevin coached each of his daughters in ringette, some years this meant coaching three entirely different teams. He was the type of coach that exuded positivity and instilled the most important lessons children can learn from sport, to be kind and always remember to just have fun. One of his infamous “time-out” speeches was telling his young ringette players to think about how much they love the sport of ringette and to go out there and fill the back of the opposing team’s net with that love. As the story goes, his players ended up scoring numerous goals to come back and win the game.
After becoming a husband and Father, Kevin put his dreams of being a rockstar on hold and attended University to become a Music Educator. He worked part-time at Music Box/Long & McQuade on evenings and weekends while completing his degree and many nights playing gigs, weddings, and recording jingles all with two young children at home, in these years he didn’t sleep much. He received his degree in Music Education in 1993 and was a high school teacher for 26 years. His career began at Nutana Collegiate in 1994/95 where he was hired as a temporary Art Teacher and assured the Admin that he could start up a badly needed Guitar course, unbeknownst to them at the time he didn’t know how to play the instrument. He picked up the skill quickly and taught a generation of students to play the Guitar. His last 10 years were spent at Mount Royal Collegiate where he started up the Rockin' Royal Orchestra. Every morning he lived his dream of being a "Rockstar" by playing and singing the rock classics with his students. He inspired many young minds and undoubtedly instilled his love and passion for music to all those who were lucky enough to call him Mr.Barrett.
Kevin carried on a summer hobby which was started with his late brother Mark’s house painting business in the 1980s. He famously never advertised but booked jobs years in advance. His clients became friends and repeat customers year after year. He had a genuine rapport with the folks at Eastside Paint and Wallpaper with whom he often shared stories of his daughters’ achievements with. He took a great deal of care and time into transforming people’s homes with paint. He enjoyed being outdoors and indulging in the baked treats and conversation these jobs often included. Oddly, he didn’t often listen to music while painting or driving it was in the quiet moments that he would find inspiration to compose songs in his head and think deeply about the world.
Kevin had a passion for decorating and taking care of his own home and yard it was a great sense of pride for him to create a place of joy for his wife, children and grandchildren. He was so proud of his children for creating their own homes with their own families and helped shape their experience in any way he could by painting, teaching his girls how to use tools or buying them a “proper” coffee pot.
Since a young kid, he had a big imagination and was considerate of others and cared very much about the City of Saskatoon. He wrote a letter to Mayor Sears when he was in Grade nine proposing upgrades to sports facilities in Saskatoon which included a grandiose idea of having a central sports and concert stadium. He took his family to countless concerts and sporting events at the Sasktel Center throughout his life and often talked about his dreams of a central Stadium, he was over the moon when the City of Saskatoon announced the new downtown arena approval this past year, although he is still concerned about parking!
Since 2000, Kevin played with local bands such as Pink Floyd Tribute “Outside the Wall”, Kashmir and BC Read. Over the last 10 years, Kevin reclaimed his focus on his passion of songwriting and showcasing his own music where he has written over 300 songs. He composed each and every song from the heart, all of which are based on a wide range of experiences he had in his life. These songs have received great interest from a variety of music industry producers and publishers both in Canada and the U.S. Just days before entering Palliative Care, one of Kevin’s greatest dreams came true. Five of his most recent songs were recorded by local Nashville musicians at Reba McIntyre studio. “Let Love Reign”, “This Time”, “Showdown”, “Say it Like it is”, “That’s Life” and “You take away my blues”. These five songs will now be shared with recording artists through Anthem Entertainment Group. Kevin poured everything into writing and demoing these songs in order for this to happen. He never gave up on his dream, despite having battled one of the most difficult diagnoses one could receive.
On December 24th, 2014, Kevin married, as he would say “the love of his life” Jackie Almeida. She was his best friend, companion, a witness to his life in the last 14 years, and the muse to his songs. The love he had for her was evident in his devotion, his unwavering championing of her every endeavour, and the eyes of love he consistently met her with at every turn. Together they blended families bringing a kaleidoscope of flavour, culture, and personality. Jackie’s children will forever be thankful for the love he had for them and for fully embracing the role of “Papa” to their kids.
We would like to thank Dr. Vitali, Dr. Maas, Dr. Baptiste, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Woloschuk and the staff at Royal University Hospital, The Cancer Clinic, St.Paul’s Palliative Care for the compassionate care Kevin and the family received. The family would also like to thank Adele Kulyk from Global Healthcare Connections for her support during Kevin’s cancer journey.
A Celebration of Kevin's life will take place at Lakeview Church on Thursday, June 22, 2023 at 1 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to:
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.17