WINSTANLEY, Barbara Bradle “Barb”
Of Concord, MA, died peacefully on October 20, 2022 surrounded by her loving family.
She was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 19, 1942 to her late parents, Robert and Mary (Sutfin) Bradle. Barb was an artist at a very young age, drawing every day in her sketchbook. After high school in Arlington Heights, she went on to study art at Bowling Green University in Ohio, graduating in 1964 with a BA in Art Education.
It was there she met the love of her life, David Winstanley. To everyone’s delight and surprise, they were married seven weeks later. Deciding to leave the Midwest behind, they packed a car and headed to New England to follow job prospects, adventure, and a love of the rich history–both artistic and historic–of the Concord area. Living first in Framingham, and then Sudbury, they would drive through a then rustic Concord on the weekends with the dream of moving there one day. They made the leap to Whittemore Street in 1969.
Barb was instrumental in starting Winstanley Associates in 1973. She worked on research, correspondence and design for the fledgling real estate development company.
Always family oriented, Barb raised three children while developing her art career. Mainly a watercolorist, she won numerous awards for her work. She was a selected artist at the Concord Art Association and ribboned at shows in Maine and Florida many times.
She carried her camera everywhere, capturing moments of beauty and light to later paint the images in her studio.
Barb wrote for the Concord Patriot and edited the Ketch, a newsletter of the Kennebunk River Club in Kennebunkport, Maine. She loved to drive her ‘72 Oldsmobile 442, sail on the Atlantic in her Rhodes 19, and was an avid gardener, swimmer, tennis player, and reader of both literature and history (making her a champion of Trivial Pursuit). She taught her children and grandchildren how to fish and find arrowheads, to shell on her beloved Sanibel Island, to draw and paint, and above all to appreciate the natural world all around them.
When they first moved to Nashawtuc Hill in 1977, Barb convinced a local farmer to graze his calves in their pasture. She grew peonies and daylilies and tended an enormous vegetable garden. Every August she took great pride in filling her pantry with homemade canned tomatoes. A closeted penny pincher, she was known to pack a ham bone in her designer purse to take on vacation so she could make her split pea soup upon arrival.
She taught her family how to throw and was renowned for her incredible arm, an offensive weapon when her teenage sons dared to push her into her pool one cold spring. When they laughed about it over dinner, she did not hesitate to pick up the pot roast and pitch it at them. She threw pie crust and magazines and fruit and tennis balls; even her recent caregivers were acquainted with her strong arm and were always aware of potential projectiles.
The proud and fierce matriarch of a close-knit family, she will be dearly missed. She is survived by her husband of fifty-eight years, David; her children and their spouses Adam and Susie (Piper) Winstanley, Carter and Lissa (Franz) Winstanley, and Melissa and Andy Bonzagni; and her deeply adored grandchildren: Cole, Jalen, Schuyler, Alexandra, Tucker, Zoe and Henry. She is also survived by her brother Edward Bradle of Deer Park, Illinois, and her sister Lynn Sims of Durango, Colorado.
There will be a private Family Service and burial in Concord, and a Celebration of her Life on June 30, 2023 in Kennebunkport, Maine.
In lieu of flowers, donations in her honor can be sent to: The Scholarship Fund of Concord and Carlisle (Winstanley Scholarship) at www.thescholarshipfundofcc.org or BrightFocus Foundation at www.brightfocus.org
For Barb’s online guestbook, please visit www.DeeFuneralHome.com Dee Funeral Home of Concord 978-369-2030 Caring for families since 1868