Barbara Lynn (Weaks) Sutton

14 years ago

    Sutton, Barbara L., September 23, 2010.
    Barbara Sutton passed away suddenly on September 23, 2010, while en route to join her family in Houlton. She was returning from Yuma, Arizona, where she was assisting her mother with memorial services for her stepfather, who passed approximately two weeks ago.
    Barbara was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1967, and was a graduate of the Maurnee Valley Country Day School. She attended Mary Baldwin College, and graduated as a double major in 1988. After college, she married her husband, Matthew, in July of 1989. They began their life together in Yuma, Arizona, and lived and loved there for the next twenty years. Their three sons, Justin, Jared, and Joshua were born while they lived in Yuma. Barbara and Matt moved to Houlton in 2009, along with Jared and Joshua. Justin stayed in Arizona to attend college. He went on to transfer to Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison.
    In Yuma, she worked at the Saguaro Foundation, and later took over as the executive director of the Yuma Reading Council, a nonprofit organization that championed adult literacy. She worked tirelessly, and transformed the Reading Council into a nationally recognized program. After moving to Houlton, she became the director of Visions, which is the Southern Aroostook Cultural Arts Project, a cooperative venture that promotes local artists and gives them a venue to sell their work. She also continued her work in adult literacy, and became the executive director of the Literacy Volunteers of Aroostook County.
    Barbara had an innate ability to make friends. No matter the location or situation, Barbara would always step forward and make a friend. In both her personal and professional lives, she touched people and held them close.
    Barbara was preceded in death by her father, Robert Weaks, and her stepfather, Roland Miller. She is survived by her mother, Eva Miller, of Yuma, AZ; her husband, Matthew Sutton, her sons, Justin of Gunnison, CO, and Jared and Joshua of Houlton; and her sister, Karen Alberts and her family of Toledo, OH.
    A memorial service will be held in Houlton at the Houlton Wesleyan Church, located at 18 Kelleran Street on Thursday, September 30 at 2 p.m. Anyone wishing to make donations in Barbara’s name should address them to either Visions-SACAP or to the Literacy Volunteers of Aroostook County.