Harriette Sherman Barnes93, of Lebanon, NH died Sunday, June 2, 2013 at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center after a brief terminal illness, following some months of challenged health.

Harriette was born in Cleveland, Ohio on April 30, 1920, the daughter of Henry Stoddard Sherman and Edith McBride Sherman. She attended the Laurel School for Girls in Cleveland, followed by Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Erskine Junior College in Boston.

Throughout her childhood and youth, Harriette enjoyed a variety of sports, outdoor adventures and travel. She was always ready for game of tennis, a horse-back ride or a hike. As a young woman, Harriette spent some time as a volunteer courier caring for the horses used by the Frontier Nursing Society in Wendover, Kentucky. This experience and others shaped her belief that we are here to serve and to help one another -- a belief that Harriette modelled throughout her life, in her own quiet, self-effacing way.

After her formal education ended, Harriette worked at a number of jobs and volunteer positions before marrying her husband James Barnes in Cleveland in 1949. The couple followed Jim's work East and settled in Westchester County, NY where they raised their family. After Jim's retirement in 1980, they moved to Norwich, Vermont and then to White River Junction in 1999. Jim died in 2001 and Harriette moved to Harvest Hill in Lebanon in 2005.

Harriette had attended summer camp in Fairlee, Vermont as a girl and was delighted to be back in the area. She spent every possible moment outside -- gardening, playing tennis, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and especially hiking and walking. Harriette also delivered Meals on Wheels for many years, knit Chemo Caps for cancer patients, volunteered in the Harvest Hill library, and spent innumerable other hours in service projects of many kinds.

Harriette is survived by her three children, Elizabeth Ritter and her husband Grant of Quaker Hill, CT and White River Junction, VT; Mary Ann Barnes and her partner Martha Nye of Richmond, VT; and Henry Barnes and his wife Kate of Charlotte, VT; two granddaughters, Caroline Barnes Ritter of Oakland, CA and Elizabeth Alden Ritter of Chicago, IL. She is also survived by a number of special nieces and nephews, who held her in the highest esteem, and by many dear friends.

Predeceasing Harriette were her parents, her brothers Henry Stoddard Sherman, Jr. and John Sherman, her sister Elizabeth Wright Sherman Hughes, her husband James Austin Barnes, and an infant son.

As per Harriette's wishes, there will be no memorial service. Arrangements for her cremation were by Wilson-Rand Funeral Home, 11 1/2 School Street, Hanover, NH. The family requests that any memorial gifts be made to the Frontier Nursing Service, 132 FNS Drive, Wendover, KY 41775, or to the Friends of the Northern Railtrail in Grafton County, PO Box 206, Enfield, NH 03748.

Cheerful. Considerate. Kind. Gracious. Humble. Determined. Witty. Elegant. Respectful. Positive. Resilient. Gentle. Committed. Ethical. We have lost one of the very, very best.