Obituary of Barbara H. Peavey

Barbara H. (Berg) Peavey Obituary

Steeplechase. Coney Island. Bay Ridge All Girl’s High School. The Dodgers. Fort Hamilton neighborhood. Barbara Helen (Berg) Peavey was always proud to be from Brooklyn. And while she moved away from her beloved city 56 years ago, she was always happy to go back and visit family and friends. 

Barbara died on Sunday, November 22, 2020 after several years of declining health. 

Barbara was born in Brooklyn on October 20, 1943. While there were many fond memories of growing up in Brooklyn, there was also a lot of pain. She lost her mother Helen at a young age, never knew her father and grew up in a separate home from her dear younger sister and brother, Ingrid and Stanley Gjelland. But the love, guidance and faith from her grandmother BendikteOlsen provided a safety net in the home they shared together. The bond between grandmother and granddaughter ran deep.  They were also part of a close knit Norwegian community in Bay Ridge.

She moved from New York when she married Sheldon Wallace Peavey of Kingston, Massachusetts. Sheldon was an MP for the army, Barbara worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They met at a Methodist Church and married on January 4, 1964. 

Together they built a home in Kingston and had three children April, Jason and Jill. From their home, Barbara became a successful fine arts painter. She won numerous awards at art societies along the South Shore and in Boston. She sold numerous paintings at galleries on Cape Cod and Nantucket. As a team Barbara and Sheldon created and sold ornaments at the gift shop for Ocean Spray Cranberries in Plymouth and soldmany other handmade items at annual craft fairs in the area. It’s meaningful to know that thousands of homes around the world have her creations. 

In 2010, Barbara’s ‘rock’ passed away. Sheldon died in theirhome in February of that year. A few years later the house was sold and she moved into an assisted living center in Hanson, MA. Barbara is survived by her sister and brother in New York, her three children and their spouses and her beloved grandchildren, Amelia Hope and Jeremy Sheldon.  

A private service will be held on Saturday, November 28th at 10am at Shepard’s Funeral Home in Kingston. 

A celebration of Barbara’s life will be honored next year, in a garden, when her favorite thing, flowers are in bloom. Donations in Barbara’s memory can bemade to the Salvation Army, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston or the Church of the Pilgrimage in Plymouth, MA.