Helen Barrett

On a personal note, with thanks to AHS in Oakland, California for the notification, we report the sad news of the death of Helen Barrett of Lexington, Nebraska. She passed away peacefully on February 16 at the age of 103.

I only met her once, on the occasion of an interview in the very first days of a seventeen-day summer 2008 road trip across Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa and Minnesota to document the national political conventions. But she made an indelible impression on me. She was gracious, patient, wise – and witty, as you'll see in the brief video below.

Helen's only living brother David, twenty-three years her junior, died a few days earlier in Florida. Memorial services are planned this Saturday in Florida and Lexington. We extend our sincere condolences to their family and friends.


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[video caption: "Interview with Helen Barrett of Lexington, Dawson County, Nebraska. August 21, 2008, ten days prior to the GOP national convention in St. Paul.

Note that Ms. Barrett is the mother of retired GOP U.S. Congressman William E. "Bill" Barrett, featured in an interview recorded on the same day."

Part of year-long national media project "The Electoral College."]