June 20, 2023
Barbara Jean (Cowie) Browne November 12, 1934 – June 16, 2023.
Barbara, affectionately known as “Bunny” to family, was born in Summit New Jersey in 1934 to the late Elrick “Mike” and Nell Cowie. She spent her childhood years growing up in West Hartford, Connecticut and summered on her beloved Pinehurst Lake in Hartland, Connecticut. She attended Centenary Junior College in Hackettstown, New Jersey where she obtained a liberal arts degree and formed many lifelong friendships.
After college, she moved to Beacon Hill in Boston and worked as a secretary for IBM for many years. It was also in Boston that she met her future husband, Gene. They later married and moved to Hingham in 1966 where they lived happily for 50 years and raised their two daughters. In 2017, Barbara moved to Linden Ponds Retirement Community where she made many new friends and enjoyed Bridge games, art classes and the Linden Ponds Singers.
Over the years, Barbara was involved in many social activities in and around the South Shore including Hingham Civic Music Theater, AAUW, PTA, Girl Scouts of America and the Hingham Senior Center. She also volunteered her time at South Shore Hospital.
Her true passion and talent was her incredible piano playing. She would spend hours engrossed in her music and loved to play for an audience at family and neighborhood gatherings. Her piano accompanied her to Linden Ponds where neighbors would pass by in the hallway and pause to hear her music. She was an avid reader, enjoyed adult coloring books and had an amazing vocabulary from her completion of thousands of LA Times crossword puzzles.
Barbara was predeceased by her husband, Eugene (Gene) Browne. She was the loving mother to Allyson Anderson of Kingston, MA and Jennifer Carr and her husband, Richard, also of Kingston MA. She is also survived by her sister Dorothy Thompson (Herb) of Old Saybrook, CT and her brother Robert Cowie (Marge) of Ocala, FL. She also leaves behind four devoted grandchildren, Christopher, Lindsay, Colby and Jayme.
Visiting Hours will be held on Wednesday June 21, 2023 from 4-7 P.M. at the Downing Cottage Funeral Chapel 21 Pond Street Hingham, relatives and friends invited. A Funeral Service will be held on Thursday at 11 A.M. at the Funeral Home.