Published in the June 7, 2019 edition.
WAKEFIELD — Veronica (Ronnie) E. Barry, 97, of Wakefield, Vero Beach, Fla., Melrose, and most recently Stoneham, passed away peacefully on Friday evening, May 31, 2019 at Life Care Center of Stoneham.
Ronnie was born in Boston on April 13, 1922, to Paul E and Mary A (Hingston) Tedesco.
She grew up in East Boston and later Somerville. After graduating from high school, she worked in a box factory in Somerville where she met and worked for her future husband John Kevin Barry of Wakefield. They married and lived for a short time in North Reading. Before their family came, she worked during World War II as a real-life Rosie the Riveter in the Chelsea Navy Yard.
After about four years, she and John moved their growing family to John’s hometown of Wakefield, where they lived on Cedar Street for nearly 20 years. After their children were in school, Ronnie worked for a well-known doctor in Wakefield, first as his office assistant and, as time went on, as his nursing assistant. This fulfilled a lifelong dream of hers to be a nurse. In addition, in this role, she became acquainted with many Wakefield residents that even her husband, a long-time Wakefield resident, did not know. But above all, she cherished her role as a mother and grandmother. She loved her children and grandchildren fiercely and with all her being.
She is survived by four of her five children: William P. Barry and his wife Marie DeStefano-Barry of Woburn; Merrie A. Bailey and her husband Thomas Hansen of Walnut Creek, Calif.; Judith B. Wish and her husband Steve Kuney of Jackson, Wyo. and New York City; and Kevin J. Barry and his wife Jeanne Barry of Bangor, Maine. She is also survived by her daughter-in-law Faith Sweetser Barry, widow of her deceased son Daniel J. Barry, and by her brother Paul Tedesco of South Carolina.
Mrs. Barry also is survived by her “treasures,” that is, her 12 grandchildren: John E. Barry, Randy and Bret Bailey, Aaron, Galen and Jeremy Kuney, Sloane Kuney Rosenthal, Lily Barry, and Anne, Ruthie, Martha, and Daniel “Bud” Barry, and her nine great-grandchildren. Her twin sister Eleanor Patturelli and her brother Frederick Tedesco predeceased her.
A graveside service will be held at the Forest Glade Cemetery, Lowell St., Wakefield, in late August.
Arrangements are in the care of the McDonald Funeral Home in Wakefield.
