Portsmouth, NH – Barbara Louise (Farnum) Sylvester, age 97, died gently on the eve of the Winter Solstice just as the snow began to fall. She was predeceased, in 1997, by her husband of 47 years, Lt. Col. George A. Sylvester, USAF retired.
Barbara was a Cape Cod girl, the daughter of Herbert and Helen Farnum. She rode the train every day from Bridgewater to Boston throughout WWII, graduating from Massachusetts College of Art in 1949 (and UNH in 1978). She continued studies in the Philippines and in Germany, and became an art educator in New Hampshire and Southern Maine, showing in many juried exhibits, including the Ogunquit Art Center, York County Area Council Traveling Exhibit (Maine State Commission on the Arts), Nasson College, Springvale, ME, Women in Art in New Hampshire, (NH Commission on the Arts), the Currier Museum in Manchester, NH, and the National Endowment for the Arts and at the N.H. Institute of Art in Manchester, NH, a Single Artist Portrait Exhibit, sponsored by the Good Roads Association of NH at Wentworth-by-the-Sea in Newcastle, NH, and with a special retrospective exhibit of her work in Portsmouth celebrating her 80th birthday in Sept. 2008. Barbara’s work hangs in private collections throughout the world.
After retiring in 1996, she freely donated work to family, friends, and organizations such as Wentworth Senior Living, Portsmouth NH Garden Club, the First United Methodist Church of Portsmouth, NH (the large Noah’s Ark mural in the Sunday School Room), and St. John’s Methodist Church in Dover.
Barbara’s remaining family includes: Helen C. Brewster of Greenland, NH and Anne R. Jennison (and her husband Charles D. Jennison) of Lee, NH, two grandsons: Jason T. Brewster and his wife Trisha Morrissey Brewster and Captain Matthew W. Brewster and his wife Michelle Cogliandro Brewster, all of Portsmouth, NH, and also two granddaughters: Georgianna Jennison Sawyer (and her husband Andrew Sawyer) of Lee, NH and Amanda Jennison Sousa (and her husband Christopher Sousa) of Franklin, NH. Barbara is also survived by her six perfect great-grandchildren: Coleman, Pia, Parker and Connor Brewster, and Isabel and Jake Sawyer.