Barbara J Roth

She was born in Toledo, OH on March 23, 1938, to Pauline and Stanley Flowers. She attended St. Vincent de Paul elementary school and graduated from Woodward high school in Toledo in 1956. Upon graduation, she took a secretarial position at an insurance agency where she worked for several years and made lifelong friends. While in high school she met her husband to be Edward Roth on a blind date. They spent the next nearly 70 years of their lives together.

They were married on April 23, 1960. A few years later they moved to Akron, OH area where she worked as a secretary at Goodyear Aerospace. In 1966, she gave birth to the first of her three girls and for the next 30 years she became a devoted full-time mom with all the joys and heart aches that entailed.

In 1974, she and her family moved to Pittsfield, MA. At first it was tough on her being a young mother with no family support or friends. However, she soon began making a new life with the schooling of her girls and church activities serving as a lector, eucharistic minister, religious education teacher at Sacred Heart and St. Francis parishes and OH YES helping with bingo at St Joseph high school. She began gardening in Akron, loved it and it became part of her life. Each year, starting with the seed, she raised and preserved enough vegetables to last through most of the Berkshire winters. In the summer months, she also enjoyed swimming at Berkshire Hills Country Club and Pontoosuc lake. But in the winter months she would strap on the skis and go cross country skiing in nearby woods. There were dress up times too. She loved dancing and enjoyed dinner and dancing at the country club or a night at a Berkshire restaurant.

As a young woman, she learned to sew and designed and made many of her own dresses and suits and later those of her girls. When she decided to go back to work it was a natural fit to go into custom decorating first for Sears and then for JC Penney. She retired from Penney’s and moved with her husband to Harwich, MA in August of 1999.

Barb loved the seasons, the ocean, swimming and Cape Cod so when the working years prematurely ended with a diagnosis of cancer for her husband she knew exactly where she wanted to retire. On the Cape she once again began a new life. She made new friends mostly through Newcomers Club and the church. She particularly enjoyed bowling with the newcomers and their dinner-dance parties and bridge-pizza parties with friends. Exercise classes with Charlie at the Harwich Community Center became a weekly event. She continued to be active in her church at Holy Trinity parish until failing health wouldn’t allow it.

Barb was a humble, loving and caring person who devoted her life to her family and helping those in need. She enjoyed the little thing that life brought her way including her Papillons Pepe and Andy.

She was always a lady! She never asked for much. She always said if God wanted her to have it He would give it to her. She lived her life trusting in Him. Now He has given her eternal life.

I love you honey!

Barb is predeceased by her parents and her youngest daughter Dr. Catherine M. Roth of Salem, NH. She is survived by her husband, her daughter Cynthia M. Roth both of the Cape and her daughter Christine M. Roth of Dighton, MA as well as her granddaughter Arielle Mahoney of FL and in-laws James and Marilyn of AZ, Richard and Sonny of NC and many nieces and nephews scattered around the country.

A funeral mass will be celebrated at Holy Trinity Parish on Thursday, February 27, 2025, at 10am. In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to Holy Trinity Parish of Harwich or Food for the Poor.