Committal Service
Barbara Boutilier
Thursday, April 11, 2013 following 10am funeral service in The Butterfield Chapel (Section 47 Lot 5 Grave 2)
Boutilier, Barbara (Ash) passed peacefully on Sunday April 7th at Steere House. Born in Cranston, she was the daughter of the late Albert and Anna (Ross) Ash, sister of Albert and the late Robert Ash. Barbara was the wife of the late Charles E. L. Boutilier. She was the devoted mother of Linda Boutlier Gendron (John) and Edward L. Boutilier (Martha) of Scituate. She was the proud grandmother of Jenna Boutlier Forsman (Brian) and Bryan Boutilier. She also leaves her great grandson Noah Forsman.
Barbara graduated from Cranston High School and Edgewood Secretarial School. Barbara maintained an upbeat, optimistic personal outlook, despite several personal set-backs that would have been too much for those with less forebearance. At age 14, she made it into the Journal of American Medicine by being one of the first to survive spinal meningitis. Her doctor experimented with a new sulfer medication and she came out of a deep coma. She made a full recovery but was left with permanent hearing loss in one ear. After five years of marriage, her beloved husband drowned while fishing alone off the rocks in Narragansett. She learned to drive, went back to work and managed to raise two young children as a single mother at a time when that was not common. She said that raising her children gave her the will to go on and she gave all she had to the job. She was proud was proud of the accomplishments of her children and grandchildren and wanted them to have more opportunities than she had. Later, she was one of the first single women to be given a mortgage so that she could buy a house for her family. Old Stone Bank took the risk because she was a loyal and valued employee. She rose to the level of Vice President despite not having a college education and went on to help found the Human Resources Dept. and eventually be the bank expert on employee benefits. She personally watched over the bank retirees. Ironically, when it was time for her to retire, she had such faith in the bank she put her pension in bank stock and lost it when the bank became insolvent. She never lost faith in the banking industry and was never bitter about what happened to her. She loved to travel and took her family on several vacations to Canada, a woman alone with two small children. She was grateful that her job allowed her to travel and took advantage of the chance to go to conferences all over the U.S. She often spoke of her trips to California, Bermuda, and Britain. Barbara revelled in her parent’s large families and embraced her husband’s family even after he died. She stayed in touch with family all over the world and loved the idea of family reunions. She managed to make up for not having biological sisters through her extended family and considered her cousin, Shirley and her sister-in -law Marge to be her sisters. She also maintained a life long relationship with her best friend from kindergarten, Lorene. She was a faithful member of Calvary Baptist Church and taught Sunday School for many years. She served on several boards including SPNM, Steere House, and the Society for Women Accountants.
A funeral Service will be held on Thursday April 11th at 10:00am in The Butterfield Chapel 500 Pontiac Avenue Cranston. Burial will follow in Quidnessett Memorial Cemetery North Kingstown. Visitation will be held on Wednesday from 6:00-8:00pm. Kindly omit flowers. Donations to Steere House 100 Borden Street Providence, RI 02903 or South Providence Neighborhood Ministries 747 Broad Street Providence, RI 02907 would be appreciated.
