Corrie Adele "Dell" Shipp O'Barr's Obituary
Corrie Adele “Dell” Shipp O’Barr of Atlanta Ga., formerly of Dallas, Texas, passed away in McKinleyville, California Friday January 9th, 2015. She was 87. At her request, she spent her final days in the Northern California climes enjoying a redwood oceanside Christmas and New Years celebration. Born in Washington GA, the fourth of five children, to Anna Bowman Shotwell and James Litton Shipp, Dell was raised in Atlanta Ga. She grew up during the Great Depression on Belmont Avenue. Attending Girls High School, Dell graduated before that institution became coed, and was renamed Roosevelt High School. Although she may have aspired to college in her mother’s footsteps, at Hollins College, she opted for the work a day world as a book keeper. At this time she met the love of her life Thomas Bayard “Tommy” O’Barr Sr. who was then attending Georgia Tech. Dell’s best friend Eloise knew Tommy’s brother Dick and invited Dell to go on a double date with them. Dell related to family, Tom said he knew he would marry her the moment he saw her on that first date. The two were indeed married June 19th, 1946. From a DuPont family, Tom grew up all over the US (Joplin MO., Dupont WA, Dupont WV and Santiago, Chile, South America before the war. Serving in WW II on Guam, Tom returned to study textile engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. For a short time until his graduation, the couple lived there in married student housing and made many bridge club friends. Tom promised Dell the same lifestyle of moving around the country his father had provided. Dell and Tom’s first stop was Waynesboro VA. Here the two set up house without a car, living in the MacAlister family basement, DuPont family friends they’d keep for life. Pining for mama and the city life, Tom would take Dell back to Atlanta often the first few years out of the nest. Their second move to Camden SC proved to be pivotal in establishing more lifelong friends among DuPonters and Episcopalians of Grace Episcopal Church in Camden. Here were born their three children, Tommy Jr, Bow and Ann. By 1965 Tom Sr. was moving the family on to a plant in Martinsville, VA. While here Tom was sent on a detail to Holland. His fervor for travel rekindled, by 1967 he wanted to move the family to Hamm, Germany. Not so sure, Dell finally succumbed to his enthusiasm, and they moved to Germany staying until 1977. Dell remembers this time as the best years of their lives travelling around Europe and back and forth to the United States for summer visits with family. Associating themselves with the Windsor Boys and Girls School, a British Military School set up for British ex pats in the Ruhr Valley, DuPont set up an agreement with the schools whereby US DuPonters could attend school and graduate from Brandywine High School. The arrangement resulted in a most extraordinary relationship between DuPont families and the schools. Dell and Tom met and kept in touch with close British and DuPont friends from here, even to the present. In 1977 the couple and daughter Ann left for Isfahan, Iran and the Polyacryl DuPont Plant there, while the sons attended college and worked in the states. But with the Iranian revolution in 1979, the couple returned stateside again, to re-reside in Martinsville, VA. Finally due to a family illness, they retired to Dallas, Texas to be near Dell’s younger sister Anna and family, with whom she was very close. Shortly after arriving in Texas, Dell and Tom’s daughter Ann died in 1988, and Tom Sr. passed away too in 1990. Grandma Dell spent the rest of her days there, travelling from Dallas often to visit her children and grandchildren in Atlanta, GA and around the western United States, all of whom will miss her very much. Dell is survived by her son Thomas Bayard Jr., his wife Kathryn and by her son James Bowman and his wife Casssandra; grandchildren Corrie Arlene, Kyle, Elyse, Brendan, James Todd Thomas, Jenna, and great grandchild Emilee Cate. She is preceded in death by her Husband Thomas Baryard Sr., her Daughter Martha Anna; brother James Litton Shippe Jr., and sisters Lotta, Sadie, and Anna. Funeral Services for Dell are planned in The Abbey Chapel at Restland Funeral Home on Saturday January 17th, 2015 at Noon. Donations to the American Cancer Society, American Macular Degeneration Foundation, or Trinity Episcopal Church Dallas are preferred by the family in lieu of flowers.
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