Barbara Hardenbergh Hopkins, 84, died suddenly and peacefully of natural causes at her home in West Roxbury, Massachusetts early Saturday morning on October 4, 2014. She is survived by her children, Stephen Hopkins, of Pleasant Valley NY, Mark Hopkins of Toledo, OH, Judith Giovangelo of West Roxbury, MA and Susan Hopkins Welch of New Durham, NH; by her brother Daniel Hardenbergh of Boston, MA and his wife Maryanne (her best friend); by her grandchildren Samuel, Jesse, Maxwell, Josephine and Christine Hopkins, Michael and Jenna Giovangelo, and Brett and Brady Bartlett. She is also survived by three great-grandchildren, William, Jaxon and Clementine. We pray that she has been reunited with her daughters Candace Hopkins and Lyndsey Watson, and a grandchild, Benjamin Giovangelo, as well as with her beloved parents.
She was born Barbara Jane Hardenbergh on June 17, 1930, in Kingston NY. She was the daughter of William and Marion Hardenbergh. She attended the Katharine Gibbs School in New York City and married Charles Irving Hopkins in June 1949. They settled and brought up their children in and around Albany, NY, where Barbara was a housewife and worked in her husband’s insurance agency as a secretary. The family moved to Largo, Florida in 1970. She and Charles divorced in 1971, after which she brought up and supported her four younger children alone. She moved with them to Boston in 1980, where she enjoyed a long and successful career as an administrative assistant at the Harvard Medical School.
Barbara was an accomplished singer and pianist, and with her brother Daniel was a longtime member of the Dedham Choral Society, a renowned group that has performed with the Boston Symphony in Symphony Hall and has sung all over the world, including Vatican City, Vienna, Austria, Prague in the Czech Republic, Budapest, Hungary and Taiwan, China.
Barbara was a great and steadfast friend of many throughout her long life, including her former sister-in-law Judith Stangeby, with whom she had many adventures. The two old friends will be reunited as well.
She was connected to many in her community through yoga, bridge club and two book clubs, and she still enjoyed working part time at the Boston Pier, boarding passengers for Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Barbara Hopkins is testament to the notion that if you live life modestly and in the service of goodness and community, you will be richly rewarded.
Barbara’s far-reaching community of old and new friends and family are invited to a memorial service on Saturday, October 18 at 11 a.m. at the Allin Congregational Church, 683 High Street, Dedham, Massachusetts, 02026, There will be a reception with light refreshments following the ceremony.
She was born Barbara Jane Hardenbergh on June 17, 1930, in Kingston NY. She was the daughter of William and Marion Hardenbergh. She attended the Katharine Gibbs School in New York City and married Charles Irving Hopkins in June 1949. They settled and brought up their children in and around Albany, NY, where Barbara was a housewife and worked in her husband’s insurance agency as a secretary. The family moved to Largo, Florida in 1970. She and Charles divorced in 1971, after which she brought up and supported her four younger children alone. She moved with them to Boston in 1980, where she enjoyed a long and successful career as an administrative assistant at the Harvard Medical School.
Barbara was an accomplished singer and pianist, and with her brother Daniel was a longtime member of the Dedham Choral Society, a renowned group that has performed with the Boston Symphony in Symphony Hall and has sung all over the world, including Vatican City, Vienna, Austria, Prague in the Czech Republic, Budapest, Hungary and Taiwan, China.
Barbara was a great and steadfast friend of many throughout her long life, including her former sister-in-law Judith Stangeby, with whom she had many adventures. The two old friends will be reunited as well.
She was connected to many in her community through yoga, bridge club and two book clubs, and she still enjoyed working part time at the Boston Pier, boarding passengers for Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Barbara Hopkins is testament to the notion that if you live life modestly and in the service of goodness and community, you will be richly rewarded.
Barbara’s far-reaching community of old and new friends and family are invited to a memorial service on Saturday, October 18 at 11 a.m. at the Allin Congregational Church, 683 High Street, Dedham, Massachusetts, 02026, There will be a reception with light refreshments following the ceremony.
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