'No fear at all': Pioneering Raynham World War Two veteran turns 100. What's her secret?
RAYNHAM — “Just good luck and good genes, I guess,” said Judith Barstow, proclaiming there’s no secret to how she managed to reach age 100.
Barstow recently received a surprise birthday bash, two days before her actual birthday on Feb. 27, held at the Louis Lodge at Pine Hill Estates in Raynham, where Judith has lived for more than 40 years.
The celebration wasn’t just about reaching her centennial milestone. Family, friends and state officials attended to honor her service during World War II in the U. S. Naval Reserve, at a time when women in armed services faced strong skepticism from the public.
“For too long, women veterans were often overlooked. But not today. All the brave women who served in World War II helped pave the way for future generations,” said Joseph H. Reynolds, chief operations officer for the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Veterans Services.
Reynolds attended Barstow’s birthday party to present her with official proclamations of recognition, one from his office and the other from the office of Gov. Maura Healey.
'Loves her Wendy’s Baconators'
The general consensus among family and friends is Judith is quite spry for 100 years. She uses a walker, but her step-son Ed Barstow said she can still walk without one, and uses it mainly as a precaution.
Friend and neighbor Sheryl Medeiros, who has has been driving Barstow to her doctors’ appointments for years, said after every appointment, Judith would “give me this devilish look” while requesting to get ice cream and greasy fast food while on the way home.
“She loves her Wendy’s Baconators. As tiny as she is, she can pack them in,” Medeiros said.
Ruthie Arnold, Judith’s housekeeper for many years, told a recent story of her “feistiness”: While cleaning her bedroom, Ruthie found a mouse under her bed. After Ruthie screamed in hysteria, Judith got a broom and dustpan, and crawled under the bed to get the mouse, which turned out to be dead.
“She’s 99 and has no fear at all,” Arnold said, adding that Judith “is a fun lady and I’m so pleased to know her.”
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Working class family
Born Judith McDonald on Feb. 27, 1924, Barstow grew up in Braintree. Her father, John McDonald, worked for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co., while her mother, Agnes, was a homemaker and active volunteer with her local Catholic church.
Reaching old age runs in the family. Barstow had four sisters: May, Ruthie, Elizabeth and Grace. Barstow is the last surviving sister. May lived to be 99. Ruthie lived to be 95. And Elizabeth, who died last year, lived to be 85. Grace was the only one who didn’t reach old age, dying of diphtheria at age 4.
Barstow attended Braintree and Weymouth schools in an era when WWII left its mark on many families. Her 8th grade teacher Donald Ross, who would later have an elementary school in Braintree named after him in honor of his service, was killed in action in WWII.
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'It felt like the thing to do'
After studying at the Fisher Business School in Boston, Barstow briefly worked as union representative for the Hingham Shipyard before enlisting in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1944, as part of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program.
"My girlfriend and I went to a recruiting drive in Quincy just to pass the time. When we got home that evening, we all looked at each other, realizing what we did!" Barstow said
Women in WAVES, which was established in 1942, did everything in WWII but combat, as many of them enlisted to take over the jobs and duties of male personnel. Women enlisted in WAVES were officially officers.
When asked what was going through her mind when she enlisted, Barstow said, “It felt like the thing to do.”
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'Carry on sailor, Love Dad'
Barstow's nephew Mark Burns, a retired chief master sergeant with the U.S. Air Force, said the McDonald family has always been patriotic.
Barstow’s sister Ruthie also served in WWII as a field nurse for the 3rd Army.
“Her father was very patriotic and engaged with the war effort. He would write both her and Ruthie several times a month,” Burns said.
Burns references a letter dated Feb. 19, 1945, from John McDonald to his daughter Judith.
John McDonald closes his letter with, “Well, my dear, keep smiling, we’ll all be together soon. I always say God bless my country and her service people. It makes you proud to see the wonderful progress our armies, Navy, and all its nurses and WAVES and WACS, have made to put us where we are today. Carry on sailor, Love Dad.”
Making WAVES
Barstow said basic training at the U.S. Naval Training Center at Hunter College in the Bronx in New York City was a very physical six-week period with a lot of exercise drills, but, despite that, “we were staying in a nice hotel, not barracks.”
Barstow served in Washington D.C., where she worked for the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery as a keypunch operator, managing and updating health records of Navy personnel. Barstow was discharged on Feb. 23, 1946, with the grade of Seaman First Class.
Just two years after her discharge, the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 finally granted women the right to permanent careers in the military, and “we are all the more richer for it,” Reynolds said.
State Sen. Walter F. Timilty, who represents Barstow’s hometown of Braintree, and state Sen. Marc Pacheco, who represents Raynham, presented Barstow with a resolution honoring her 100 years of life, as well as her time in the armed services..
“You are truly part of America’s greatest generation. Thank you for your service to this country,” Timilty said.
Pacheco said: “If a member of your family, in the future, wants to do research, they can turn to the [state] history books and will read about you.”
From military to civil service
After the war, Barstow traveled a bit before returning to the workforce in Boston and Braintree and eventually Washington, D.C. in 1951 to once again work with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, this time in the civil service as an administrative assistant. She would later do the same job for many years for the Department of Defense in Boston.
A loving wife in a loving family
Barstow married twice in her life, losing her first husband to illness in 1967. Two years later she met the man who would become her second husband, fellow WW II veteran Frank Barstow or Middleboro, who had also been married before and had three children.
“She was always a tremendous and loving person,” said Judith's step-son, Ed Barstow of Bridgewater. “I was so young when she came into my life, I never thought of her any differently. She’s always been my mom."
After Frank was severely injured in a car crash, Judith retired in 1977 so she could take care of Frank, who died in 2014 at 86.
Special birthday present, emotional thank you
Both of Judith's nephews, John and Mark Burns, both sons to Judith’s sister Elizabeth, speak with her regularly and visit from Florida when they can.
“I’m blessed in that Judy taught me to be a gentleman. She’s a very kind, loving woman, and I try to be like that because of her,” said nephew John.
Mark said he's only grown closer to his aunt over the last year, since his mother died.
In his possession is a box of letters his grandfather — Judith’s father — wrote to Judith and her sister Ruthie during WWII.
“I read her a letter every week and she helps fill in the gaps,” he said, adding that their correspondence has helped Mark get to know his grandfather, whom he never had the opportunity to meet.
A special birthday present John and Mark gave to Judith was a memory. Judith and their mother Elizabeth had a tradition of signing and mailing back and forth the same birthday card, going on nine years, before Elizabeth’s death.
“You can’t even write on the card now. Even the back is covered,” John said.
Not only did Mark and John give the card back to Judith, but also included Elizabeth’s final birthday message to Judith, a private message which she completed before her death, that they held onto until Judith’s 100th birthday.
Said Judith, emotional, to her nephews: “Thank you. I love you both.”
This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: 'No fear': Raynham World War Two veteran turns 100. Her secret?
