Burial Date
Obituaries » LOIS BAREN
BAREN, LOIS KEIDEL, passed away on August 13, after a lengthy battle with heart disease, complicated by diabetes, with her family and her loyal dog present. She was born Feb. 21, 1933, in Nyack, N.Y. She grew up on a farm in Congers, N.Y., and helped with the chickens and other assorted animals her father raised on the farm, until she went to college. She graduated from Columbia University in New York and Lenox Hill Hospital School of Nursing, where she became a registered nurse. Her passion was for psychiatric nursing, which she did most of her career, retiring from the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury. She met her husband, Carl, while at Columbia University. He was a student teacher there and came over to fix a stereo for her. It was love at first sight, and they were married on May 25, 1963. They recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with friends and family, and was one of the things Lois mentioned she wanted to live long enough for. The other was going to the beach in Maine one last time, which they did in June 2013. Her interests included knitting sweaters and taking care of her hanging flowers on the porch of her First Avenue home. She also loved all of her animals, including her beloved springer spaniels: Angie, Rosie and Daisy May. There was never a skinny animal in the Baren household, as she fed them as well as she fed her family, not believing that an animal should be thin. The neighbors’ animals were also included in this theory, and she cherished all of the dogs that would visit. She is survived by her husband of 50 years, Carl Baren; her sisters, Helen Harper, of New City, N.Y., and Wilma Keidel, of Fort Myers, Fla.; daughter Alicia Brady and husband Robert; daughter Claudia Brousseau and husband Peter; two beloved grandchildren; sisters-in-law Dolores Grant and Ann Baren, of Lynbrook, N.Y.; two nephews; a grandniece and a grandnephew. Lois was predeceased by her parents, Frederick and Marguerite Keidel; and brothers-in-law, Gary Harper and Al Grant.
