Doris L. Bragdon

Shelburne Falls - Doris (Barnard) Bragdon, 99, of Shelburne Falls, MA died peacefully at home on Wednesday, March 14, 2018, with her devoted granddaughter, Jenelle Close by her side, as well as her children, grandchildren, and great grand children nearby. Doris was born in San Francisco and grew up in Alamo and later in Pacific Grove where she graduated from high school in 1936. She was descended from California Gold Rush pioneers on both sides of her family. She lived in Salinas from 1957 to 2012. She was the third of five children born to Aloron and Flora (Robinson) Barnard. Doris developed a deep understanding and love of nature while growing up on her family’s ten-acre pear orchard in the hills east of Oakland. When she was twelve, Doris and her two younger sisters were sent to live with two aunts who had retired to the seaside town of Pacific Grove. Just after high school graduation Doris met her future husband, Joe Bragdon, who was working at one of the sardine canneries immortalized in John Steinbeck’s novel, Cannery Row. After high school Doris attended Hartnell College in Salinas, and later transferred to San Francisco State University. With the United States’ impending entry into the World War, Joe and Doris married in Pacific Grove in June 1941. Immediately thereafter, they moved to Los Angeles where Doris completed her BA in history from the University of California at Los Angeles, taking her final exams while Roosevelt’s declaration of War was being played over a public address system. After graduation Doris worked as a “Rosie the Riveter” in an aircraft plant, and later became principal and head teacher at a rural school high in the San Gabriel Mountains. Meanwhile Joe was drafted in the U.S. Army and was sent to serve out the remainder of the war in Texas. Before Joe’s discharge, their first child, Jon was born in Texas in 1945. After the war Doris and Joe moved back to California where their second son, Joel was born in 1948. Doris continued to support the family as a pre-school teacher while Joe worked to complete his degrees, eventually earning a Master of Fine Art from Stanford University. The family settled in Stockton, California, where their third son, Philip was born in 1956. In 1957, the family returned to the Central Coast where Joe began teaching Art at Hartnell College. Doris continued to work as a substitute teacher in the 1960s and 70s. In the early 1960s Doris’s life-long reverence for nature stirred her to spearhead a David-and-Goliath fight to save the fragile Monterey Bay coastline from the imminent threat of a major oil refinery. It was during this time that the Bragdons became friends with photographer, Ansel Adams, who inspired Doris to explore her love of wildlife and Joe to pursue photography. The Bragdons spent many hours exploring with Adams both in the High Sierra and along the California Coast. In the 1960s Doris also became a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War as well as a supporter of civil rights and farm workers’ rights. She met and worked with César Chávez and Joan Baez among others to advocate for the rights of the oppressed. In 1971 and 1972, the Bragdons spent a year driving and camping in Europe, North Africa, and the Soviet Union with their youngest son, Philip. Throughout her life Doris believed world peace can be achieved by creating personal connections with people of differing backgrounds, and her year of travel further bolstered this belief. In 2012 the Bragdons moved to Shelburne Falls, MA to be near their son, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. In 2013, the Bragdons made the trip back to California where Joe had a major retrospective of his photography at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas where both Joe and Doris had been volunteer docents for many years. Throughout her life Doris maintained a keen interest in politics and current affairs, frequently writing letters to her elected representatives always keeping a close eye on any attempt at oppression. In the last weeks of her life she was an enthusiastic supporter of attempts by public school students to end gun violence. In recent years Doris was involved in writing down stories told to her by her grandmother who had traveled to California from New England in the California Gold Rush. Doris was predeceased by her husband of 74 years in 2016. She is survived by her sister, Jean Stout, her three sons, their spouses, nine grandchildren, five step-grandchildren, five great grandchildren, and eight step-great grandchildren. New England Funeral & Cremation Center, LLC, 25 Mill Street, Springfield, MA has been entrusted with the arrangements. Please visit www.nefcc.net

Doris L. Bragdon

September 3, 1918 - March 14, 2018