Alumnae CLASS NOTES
Spring 2016
| MILESTONES
| ARCHIVES
Lindsay McCown DuBarry ’66
An Owl for Life One of the earliest memories that Lindsay McCown DuBarry ’66 has of Agnes Irwin is when, upon enrolling in seventh grade, she was surprised to be placed in a remedial writing class — of one. She also recalls singular faculty and staff: science teacher John Bennett bringing chemistry alive, department head Joanne Neel insisting upon excellence in history and, of course, Assistant Head of School Elsa Hartman measuring the length of everyone’s tunic. She laughs about the memories now. “It was certainly a different time.” DuBarry has truly been an “Irwin’s girl” for life. After receiving her biology degree from Rosemont College and marrying her husband, Joe, she worked at the Wistar Institute as a tissue culture technician. After starting her family, DuBarry knew Agnes Irwin was the only choice for her daughters. “I just loved Agnes Irwin so much,” DuBarry said. “It launched me so well-prepared to go into the world. I knew it was where my daughters should go.” While daughters Meredith DuBarry Huston ’93 and Sandra DuBarry Laflamme ’95 were enrolled, DuBarry was a stay-at-home mom who was a familiar face on campus, volunteering for and chairing practically every school event and working, for a brief stint, in the Alumnae Office. Twenty years later, she still makes frequent visits to the school — now to see granddaughters Shaw Huston ’24 and Gardner Huston ’25, current Lower School students and third-generation Owls. DuBarry’s life is a testament to the fact that sometimes you don’t discover your talents right away. In 2003, she took a drawing class on a whim, and to her surprise, it came quite naturally to her. Her last art class had been in seventh grade with Louise Murtagh. Now she is an accomplished oil painter who has participated in many shows, won several prizes and sold some of her work. “Who knew?” DuBarry said. “Before then, there just wasn’t a lot of time to stop and think that I wanted to pick up a paintbrush. … My family jokes that something must have happened to me.”
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AGNES IRWIN MAGAZINE
SPRING 2016
“I just loved Agnes Irwin so much. It launched me so well-prepared to go into the world. I knew it was where my daughters should go.”
Two of her favorite pieces are a painting of a three-story dairy barn owned by daughter Sandra Laflamme and “Cow Communion,” which won a prize at a Wayne Art Center show in 2012. She is entering her third year as co-chair of the center’s Plein Air Festival. DuBarry also has played tennis for more than 40 years. As her daughters approached their graduation, she began working for the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis Center, where she served for seven years as a jack of all trades: bookkeeper, fundraiser, database manager, party planner and more — all skills she had honed volunteering at AIS. Now she and her husband enjoy playing golf; she has a handicap of 14. To round out her activities, she has been singing with The Counterparts, an a cappella group, for more than 25 years. “I know that started at Irwin’s. I think it all started when Lisa Griffin Drake and I sang in four-part harmony with Mr. (Richard) Ross and Mr. Bennett for an assembly.” She considers herself lucky to have had AIS as her launching pad for her many pursuits and to have an ongoing connection with the school. Fifty years after graduating, “I am still roaming the halls there as a grandparent,” DuBarry said. “I don’t know that I will ever leave!” — Amanda Mahnke