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Barbara Lee Friemonth Skelly

On Nov. 2, Barbara Lee Friemonth Skelly of Guilford, loving wife, sister, mother and grandmother, passed away at the age of 81, at Yale New Haven Hospital. Barbara was born on May 18, 1941, in the same Glasgow, Missouri, home she would live in throughout her formative years, first attending St. Mary’s Grade School, and later graduating as salutatorian from Glasgow High School in 1959. Her father, Elmer Friemonth, was the local funeral director and eventually served as mayor of the town. Barbara’s mother, Maxine Yaeger, tended to the children, their home, and later ran the family business after Elmer passed.

A natural nurturer, Barbara moved to St. Louis, after high school to attend the St. John’s Hospital of Nursing off the heels of acing an exam that earned her a full scholarship. It was in St. Louis where she would meet the love of her life, Richard “Dick” Skelly, a traveling salesman and future entrepreneur. On April 4, 1964, they married at St. Mary’s Church in Glasgow. Barbara and Dick planted their roots in Wilton where they raised two children, David and Megan, and built a successful life together. All the while, Barbara also volunteered, first at her children’s schools and later establishing the volunteer program at the Nantucket Cottage Hospital. Summers and holidays were spent knitting, reading, walking along the beach, and cooking for family and friends. But soon Barbara discovered she had a gift for golf too, sinking multiple holes in one, and winning several tournaments at Sankaty and Nantucket Golf Club, where she and Dick were founding members, and at Card Sound at the Ocean Reef Club in Florida, where she took home a trophy or two as well. Barbara considered her communities an extension of her home and was an active member of each one she joined — from Glasgow, Missouri, to Wilton, to Nantucket, Massachusetts, to the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida, and most recently back to Connecticut, settling this time in Guilford.

Barbara was best known for warmth and kindness and dedication to her family and friends. Some of her greatest joys came from her children and grandchildren tearing open Christmas presents, playing in their first Little League games, getting good grades at school, and filling bellies with her famous mac and cheese (Don’t ask how much cheese she put in it.) and beer bread.

Of all the roles Barbara held — registered nurse, master accountant for the family business and the home finances, lifelong chef, expert needleworker, almost-professional golfer — those of wife, mother, sister, grandmother, and friend were how she defined herself. In fact, the other roles were simply a way to express her love for those around her. To be loved by Barbara was to receive a handknit sweater out of the blue, to be welcomed into her home for a quick chat that ended up lasting hours, to be filled with midwestern salads at the kitchen table and to be hugged within an inch of your life each time she said “hello.” She didn’t keep her love a secret.

Barbara is survived by her son David Skelly and his wife Kealoha Freidenburg and their sons, Aidan and Nathaniel; her daughter Megan Skelly and husband Mike Rovner and their daughter Maxine; her sisters, Luana and husband Gary Quick, and Susan and husband Mark Freese.

Services will be held privately for family and friends.