Pearl S. Barnes, executive secretary
Pearl S. Barnes, a retired executive secretary and centenarian who said she never felt her age, died Saturday from respiratory failure at her daughter’s Ellicott City home. She was 104.
Pearl Phillips was born in Grundy, Va., the daughter of William Phillips and Mary Luella Phillips, tenant farmers. She was one of 12 siblings.
In 1923, she moved with her family to a tenant farm in Westminster.
She was a talented singer, and performed with her sisters as the Phillips Sisters Trio. They traveled throughout Carroll County performing at various functions, and even sang on a Baltimore radio station.
“The sisters had once been asked by a talent scout to perform at Radio City Music Hall, which they declined because they were busy teenagers,” said her daughter, Judy Gnagey of Ellicott City.
After graduating in 1932 from Westminster High School, she went to work in the mapping department of the National Geographic Society in Washington.
In 1954, she became a laboratory technician for the National Bureau of Standards and was later promoted to executive secretary for the deputy director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. She retired in 1979. Her first husband of 14 years, Roy Simmons, a Ford Motor Co. accountant, died in 1954.
In 1966, she married Charles Barnes, president of a cap and closure company, who died in 1980.
Active in her church, Mrs. Barnes had been a member of Marvin Memorial United Methodist Church in the Four Corners area of Silver Spring, and later of the Presbyterian Church of the Atonement in Silver Spring.
She participated in Bible study, sang in choirs, and served on numerous committees.
In 1986 she joined the Silver Spring Women’s Club and managed its thrift shop and organized various social events. She also served as co-chairwoman of its choral group, in which she was a strong alto.
Mrs. Barnes enjoyed square dancing, writing music and poetry, and costume parties. She was also a world traveler.
She attributed her long life to eating farm-fresh foods and being cautious about her health, her daughter said.
“It was all a matter of perspective,” Mrs. Gnagey said. “She regularly exercised until she was in her 80s and 90s. She never believed she was old and said she always felt young.
“The other piece of advice she said was to use a good moisturizer at night on your face,” her daughter said.
Funeral services will be held at noon Friday at the Presbyterian Church of the Atonement, 10613 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring.
In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a son, Eugene Barnes of Westminster; seven grandsons; and 17 great-grandchildren. Another son, William S. Simmons, died in 1969. Another daughter, Dorothy Schaefer, died in 2018.