Barbara Mahon, 81
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Barbara Mahon, 81, of 195 Pine Cobble Road died Friday, Dec. 26, 2008, at home.
Born in Hackensack, N.J., on Sept. 15, 1927, daughter of Richard W. and Lucinda Baltz Bartels, she attended public schools in Westwood, N.J., and received her bachelor's degree in 1949 from Syracuse (N.Y.) University, where she was a member of the Sigma Kappa sorority. She moved to Fulton, N.Y., in 1951 and to Lancaster, Pa., in 1963. She moved to Williamstown in August 2006 to be with family.
Mrs. Mahon was employed as a speech pathologist for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, first in the Penn Manor School District and then, for many years, in the Hempfield School District. She retired in 1988
She attended St. John's Episcopal Church. She had previously attended St. Paul's Episcopal in Manheim, Pa., and was a founding member of St. Edward's Episcopal Church in Hempfield, serving it in various capacities. While living in Fulton, she helped at a hospital for children with cerebral palsy and later served as president of the local Parent-Teacher Association.
She was an enthusiastic and active volunteer, especially after retiring, when she counseled AIDS patients and their surviving children, served as a mentor through the Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council, helped teach handicapped children to swim, taught English as a second language, brought meals to shut-ins and built dollhouses to be sold at charity auctions. In 1992, she was named Volunteer of the Year by the Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster, for a reading and discussion program she created for young adults. That same year, she won honorable mention for a regional community service award. After moving to Williamstown, she volunteered at the Women's Exchange, Milne Public Library and the Berkshire Food Project in North Adams.
An avid bridge player, she played most recently at the Harper Center. She loved cats, dogs and horses.
Her husband of 53 years, James E. Mahon, died Jan. 30, 2003.
She leaves a son, James E. Mahon Jr. and his wife, Paula Consolini, with whom she resided; two daughters, Maryellen Simcoe and her husband, Steven, of Baltimore and Patricia Anderson and her husband, David B., of San Francisco; four grandchildren, David J. Anderson and his wife, Jennie, of San Francisco, Kathleen Simcoe of Baltimore, Jonathan Anderson of New York City and Evelyn Mahon of Williamstown.
Her brother, Richard Bartels, died in 1988.
FUNERAL NOTICE — Mrs. Mahon will be remembered Sunday, Jan. 11, at the 10 a.m. service at St. John's Episcopal Church. A service of memorial with interment of her ashes is planned for Feb. 2 at St. Edward's Episcopal Church in Hempfield, Lancaster County, Pa. In lieu of flowers, donations in her name can be made to St. John's, the Berkshire Food Project, or the ASPCA through Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, West Chapels, 521 West Main St., North Adams, MA 01247.