Kitty Stewart Shadd

Community leader, editor, and politician, Catherine Kitty Stewart Shadd moved to Barrington from Washington, D. C. with her first husband John A. Stewart and two sons in 1950. Her second husband was Robert W. Shadd, a distinguished lawyer, town council member, and town moderator. She is recognized for her groundbreaking role as the first female editor for the Barrington Times, a position she held from 1970 until 1986. In 1972, she set aside a full page of the newspaper as a holiday greeting card. Residents were asked to donate to the Community Scholarship Fund in exchange for adding their name to the greetings page. Each year, the Community Scholarship Fund awards a Barrington Times scholarship funded by the holiday greeting page donations. Kitty was president of the New England Press Association and named Woman of the Year for Communications in Rhode Island in 1978. She resigned from the Barrington Times to become a member of the Barrington Town Council, serving from 1986 to 1992. As chair of the Government Center Building Commission, she helped direct the renovation of Peck Memorial High School into the present Barrington Public Library, Senior Center, and Town Museum. Kitty was active in the community and served as chair of Self-Help, president of the Friends of the Barrington Senior Center, and was the founder and first president of the Friends of the Barrington Public Library. She was a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging in 1967 and the Conference on Libraries in 1979. A member of St. John's Episcopal Church, Kitty was Director of Christian Education for six years and served as a member of the Saint Andrews School Corporation.