Barry, Elizabeth 'Liz' Thompson

Elizabeth “Liz” Thompson Barry, 91, of Cedar Rapids, passed away March 1, 2013, at her home after several years of living with cancer. Visitation will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, March 9, 2013, at Cedar Memorial Park Funeral Home with graveside service to follow at Oak Hill Cemetery. A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Alice and Malcolm Thompson; her brother, Malcolm Thompson; and her husband, Donald S. Barry. She is survived by her two sons, Donald (Roxy) Barry of Andover, Mass., and Steven (Nancy) Barry of Marion; three grandchildren, Ivan (Rebekah) Barry of Carpinteria, Calif., Heather Barry of Washington, D.C., and Keziban Barry of New York City; two great-grandchildren, Kiyan and Aydin Barry; her sister, Alice Smith of Cedar Rapids; and two nieces, Cynthia (Janak) Thompson-Adhikari of Cedar Rapids, and Nancy Thompson of New York City.

Liz was born Sept. 4, 1921, in St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids. She graduated from Franklin High School in January of 1939 as the valedictorian, attended Lindenwood College for one year, and graduated from Carleton College in 1943 with a B.A. in botany. After working for Dow Chemical in Midland, Mich., for a year, she returned to Cedar Rapids, rolled bandages for the Red Cross, and took flying lessons to the extent of flying solo to Marshalltown and back. She met Don Barry when he was home on furlough prior to serving as a flight engineer on a B-29. They had a week of dates, digging postholes and flying (literally) around Eastern Iowa. They were married on May 25, 1946. In the summer of 1946 they started the Don Barry Construction Company, builder of residential homes in northeast Cedar Rapids. In order to help her husband's business, Liz started taking accounting courses at Coe College in the 1950s, and from Coe she earned a second B.A. in 1984 with a major in business administration.

Early in their marriage Liz wrote a play for the radio and several plays for Playtime Poppy. She also loved to write poetry. Over the years she served as treasurer of such organizations as the White Cross Society and the Junior League. She was a member of First Presbyterian Church since 1935, serving as a trustee, an elder, and treasurer.

Her mother's father had helped establish The Cedar Rapids Gazette and her family had a lifelong relationship with the paper. In 1975 she was elected to the board of directors of The Gazette Company and served as secretary of the corporation until her retirement in 2009. All her life she read The Gazette thoughtfully from page to page and was remarkably knowledgeable about issues in Cedar Rapids. She was very proud of Cedar Rapids and loved this town dearly.

She was equally proud of Iowa. Liz was a member of PEO FO, tourist club, and various book and bridge clubs. She was an avid reader of all sorts of books ranging from Sue Grafton to Patrick O'Brian. She was an excellent cribbage and bridge player and she loved playing golf, bowling, and growing vegetables. She had a vegetable garden for 65 years, producing a delicious crop of Celebrity tomatoes even in the summer of 2012. Her major in botany served her well for she was remarkably knowledgeable about plants.

Liz was also an avid fisherman, fishing on Deer Lake in Wisconsin from 1923 through the summer of 2012, a summer in which she caught six bass and hooked a musky during one glorious 45-minute evening. She loved sports, particularly Iowa football, but she also loved watching Iowa basketball, both the men's and women's teams. At age 16 she came home one day with a bloody nose, told her mom that she'd been playing football with the guys, so her mom put a stop to that, but Liz retained her love of sports all her life.

She and her husband often traveled out West to visit his sister and her family, and they also journeyed to Istanbul, Turkey, and Cambridge, England, to visit their son, Don, and his family. In the summer of 2006, Liz traveled the length and breadth of Scotland with Don and Roxy, a trip she dearly loved. We will miss her greatly.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to the First Presbyterian Church, 310 Fifth Street SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401, or to a charity of donor's choice.

The family wishes to thank the staff at St. Luke's Hospice for their warm, thoughtful, and helpful care, and the women of Home Choice for their caring and considerate help.

Please leave an online condolence for the family at under Obituaries.

Published March 3, 2013 in The Gazette