Barbara Louise Stone Callahan Neary died peacefully Tuesday June 19th at Avalon Health Care Center after a long illness. She was 87.
Babs, as she preferred to be called, had resided for nearly eight years at StoneRidge in Mystic, after having lived in and around Amherst and Longmeadow, Massachusetts for the previous four decades. She formed a number of new friendships at StoneRidge, and while staying at Avalon she received warm and attentive care from the staff.
Babs was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on November 22, 1924. She was the daughter of Muriel Plater Stone and Edward Winchester Stone, who had met and married in London at the end of World War I. In October 1942 she married James Callahan, a young naval officer from Kentucky, who was training at MIT before heading to submarine duty in the Pacific. When the war ended, James stayed in the Navy, and together they raised their family in various communities along the East Coast, including New London in the mid-1950’s. James Callahan died in 1969; several years later Babs married William Neary in Amherst, Massachusetts. Bill Neary died in 1988.
Along with her family, the important things in Babs’ long life were the church, friends, and dogs. She made friends easily and frequently, and she rescued stray dogs almost as frequently. She will be missed by her friends in Longmeadow, MA and at StoneRidge. Her last canine companion, Ginger, died earlier this year.
Babs is survived by two children, Jeffrey Callahan of Stonington and Gay Marks of Yarmouth, ME; their spouses, Lynn and Bart; as well as five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. She was predeceased by a brother, Eric Winchester Stone.
Her family will greet relatives and friends at The Dinoto Funeral Home, 17 Pearl Street, Historic downtown Mystic on Monday from 5-7pm. A Funeral Service will be held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mystic on Tuesday at 11am.
In keeping with Babs’s wishes, friends are encouraged to make donations to the ASPCA or other animal protection fund rather than sending flowers. She will be interred in a family plot in Wildwood Cemetery in Amherst, Massachusetts.