Barbara W. Barden

Barbara W. Barden, 87, of Lancaster passed away on March 25, 2015 at home. Born May 15, 1927 in Newport, RI, she was the daughter of the late Anna Louise (James) and William Fredrick Watson. Barbara graduated from Mary Washington College with a Psychology degree and president of the student government her senior year. She taught English, Spanish, and dance at Richlands high school in VA for a year. She married Fredrick Jeffrey Blodgett on December 23, 1949 and had a son. Her husband, a Navy pilot, died in a plane crash on February 18, 1952. Barbara started graduate school in Indiana and married Navy pilot Robert Barden on July 29, 1954. They lived in Colorado and Massachusetts before settling in Lancaster, PA in 1968. Barbara started the Modern Dance program at the Lancaster YWCA and in 1978 became Director of Dance at Franklin and Marshall College where she retired in 1993. She directed and/or choreographed shows for Actor's Company of PA, Lancaster Opera Workshop, F&M, Theater of the Seventh Sister, CreArtivity, Fulton Opera House, area high schools (most notably over 20 musicals at Hempfield High School with Dick Kline). She starred in Co-Motion's “Purple Twilight”, Actor's Company of PA's “On Golden Pond”, Theater of the Seventh Sister's “Eleemosynary” and Mary Haverstick's film “A Christmas Dinner”. Barbara taught numerous movement workshops and held many dance performances in downtown parks and her own backyard over the years. She was an avid knitter, loved nature walks, and had a vibrant personality which was contagious. She was an educator first and often used dance as the medium. Her credo was a simple one: “Whatever you love doing – do it”. She is survived by a loving husband, Robert, of 61 years and four children; Jeffrey Blodgett and wife Sally of Hatfield MA, Robert James and wife Louise of Huntington, MA, Stuart McPhail and wife Kim of Lancaster, and Priscilla A. (Barden) and husband Jeffrey Kaufhold of Lancaster, as well as eight grandchildren: Olivia, James, Isabella, Ainslie, A.Claire, Curtis, Calvin, and Tessa. Barbara was preceded in death along with her parents, by first husband Frederick Jeffrey Blodgett and her brother William Frederick Watson, Jr. Over the past 25 years, Theater of the Seventh Sister gave Barbara the opportunity to act, dance, choreograph, and direct. Her full evening Dance Stories led to TSS's Winter Dance Concert Series. Memorial contributions in Barbara's memory can be made to The Theater of the Seventh Sister, P.O. Box 276, Lancaster PA 17608. www.seventhsister.com Relatives and friends are invited to attend Barbara’s Remembrance Service on Sunday, April 19, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. at The Groffs Family Funeral & Cremation Services, 528 W. Orange Street (corner of Orange and Pine Sts.), Lancaster, PA with Reverend Anne Mason officiating. The family will greet friends from 1:30 p.m. until the time of service. Private interment.

Barbara W. Barden

April 13, 2015