Vaughan Castellanos Barton
A memorial service will be held for Vaughan Castellanos Barton (March 14, 1933-March 28, 2019), at Christ Church Cambridge, 0 (Zero) Garden Street in Harvard Square, at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, June 17, at 11:00 a.m.
Vaughan died March 28, 2019. She was given a private burial in the Mt. Auburn Cemetery on April 1.
Vaughan was a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She graduated from the Louise S. McGeheeSchool in l951, and from Radcliffe College in l955; She was a Class Marshall on Commencement Day for several years, wearing a black top hat and red sash. She received an M.A. in teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1956.
Vaughan taught in New Orleans in the year l956-57. In l957 she moved to New York to join her husband, James H. Barton of Cambridge, Massachusetts, following their marriage in New Orleans on June 12, 1957. She worked at the Bermuda Shop, and taught for several years at the Birch-Wathen School.
In 1966, Vaughan moved to Cambridge with her husband and sons. She taught at the Cambridge Pilot School from 1972 to 1975, and thereafter in the Somerville, Massachusetts public schools, including Somerville High School, the Western Junior High School, the Southern Junior High School and the East Somerville Community School, retiring in l998.
She was a leader of a city-wide campaign calling for an open, nationwide search for a new Cambridge school superintendent in l978, and managed a successful campaign to elect a fellow reformer and friend to the Cambridge City Council.
For many years, Vaughan served as a Board Member and Secretary for the Cambridge Camping Association.
Partly of Mexican descent, Vaughan visited her cousins in Mexico on numerous occasions. She made a home for one cousin while he attended school in Boston. She maintained a strong interest in Mexican culture, and in Mayan archaeology and monuments.
She is survived by her husband, James H. Barton, of Cambridge, her son, Patrick, of Cambridge, her son Matthew and his wife Karen, of Fairfax, Virginia, her sister, Fe Laughlin, of Metairie, Louisiana, her nephew, Sean Laughlin and his wife Fifi, of New Orleans, and their children, Sean and Peter, and her niece, Cathleen Zito, also of New Orleans, her husband, Tommy, and her sons John and Patrick
Gifts in lieu of flowers may be made to the Christ Church Building Preservation Fund, the Cambridge Camping Association, 99 Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge 02139, or the Louise S. McGehee School, 2343 Prytania St., New Orleans, Louisiana 70130.
Always patient, always kind, always loving. May she go from strength to strength and from joy to joy.
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Vaughan (Castellanos) Barton, please visit our floral store.