Mary Alice Barnhouse, age 92, died suddenly on February 13, 2019. She was doing one of her favorite activities — walking in her beloved neighborhood of Samarkand — when she took a bad fall. A resident of the Samarkand Retirement Community since 2002, she embraced life in Santa Barbara after moving from Pittsburgh, PA with her husband, David (d 2016). She became a docent at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and pursued her passion for t’ai chi at the Santa Barbara Family YMCA. She was an avid walker, and could be seen on any day in her neighborhood, or in Shoreline Park or Hendry’s Beach. Born on Nov. 25, 1926, in Pittsburgh, Mary Alice was the middle child of John W. Young and Pauline Bouterse Young. She was raised in New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. She loved art, studied at the Art Students’ League in New York City, and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. She and David met through Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, married in 1952, and settled in New York City. There, she became a children’s librarian at the New York City Public library and gave birth to her first child, Kitty. David’s work took the family to Rochester, NY, where they had two more children, Steve and Dorothy, and in 1962 to northern India, where David served as a medical missionary with the Presbyterian Church. They lived in India until 1969, when they returned to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh. There, Mary Alice supplemented her work as a full-time mother with her passions for art and children’s literature, working at Pinocchio, a children’s bookstore, and as a docent at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
She was a member of the Mt Lebanon Presbyterian Church, Church of the Ascension in Shadyside Pittsburgh, and Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara. Along with her love of exercise, art and books, Mary Alice enjoyed traveling and gardening. In her later years, she was a regular at the Santa Barbara farmers market and took great care to prepare delicious meals for her visiting family. We will miss her quiet faith, her appreciation for beauty, the warm way she connected with people, and her unwavering devotion to family and friends. She is survived by her three children, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. A memorial service is scheduled for 3 pm on Sunday, March 31 at the Samarkand.
