Thomas Burnett Barry

August 14, 1926 - November 1, 2020

Thomas Burnett Barry passed away on November 1, 2020 at the age of 94. Thomas Burnett Barry was from a pioneer California family that settled in Amador and Calaveras counties in the 1850’ s. His grandmother was Miwok Indian from that area. Thomas Burnett was named after the nephew of Peter Burnett, first governor of the state of California, Thomas Hart Burnett. Thomas Hart Burnett’s daughter, Wanonna Burnett, was the nurse at Thomas’s birth.

Born in Tuolumne, California, August 14, 1926, he was the last surviving child of nine children of James Barry and Marguerite Gebhardt Barry. Thomas Burnett was raised in Nevada City, California and graduated from Nevada City High School and Placer Junior College. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps August 7, 1944 and served in the occupation of Germany, 1945- 1946.

After his honorable discharge from the Army Air Corps he went to school at Pacific University in Cottage Grove, Oregon where he met his first wife, Jackie; they were married in 1949 and had four children. He later moved back to the San Francisco Bay area, where he met his wife, Lavilla Mae Siegrist, at Grace Cathedral, where they married in 1968. Shortly after their marriage they moved to El Granada, California, where they lived until Lavilla’s passing March, 2012.

They were avid supporters of the Peninsula Symphony and involved with the Klein International Violin Competition, hosting up and coming violinists in their home over the years. They attended Grace Cathedral and were loyal San Francisco Symphony supporters.

Thomas Burnett is survived by three children, Ben Reynolds, Deborah Jackson and Rebecca Newton, 5 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

A Memorial Service will be scheduled at a later date.