Fullerton resident Doris Barton, who was ‘energetic, funny, artistic,’ died at 90 of coronavirus - OCRegister

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Doris Casey Barton met her future husband when he was busing tables in the dining room of her sorority house.

“We were both attending the University of Oklahoma, and I had a job as a houseboy,” Clyde Barton recalled. “I picked her out as the prettiest girl in the sorority.”

The infatuation proved mutual. They married in 1951 before even graduating. Thirteen months later, the newlyweds welcomed a baby.

“Our daughter was a surprise but we were glad she came along,” Clyde Barton said.

So, straight out of college, Doris Barton began her role as homemaker.

• Clyde and Doris Barton are seen on her 80th birthday in 2011. Doris Barton, died of coronavirus Jan. 31, 2021, at age 90. (Photo courtesy of Clyde Barton)

• Needlework done by Clyde Barton’s wife, Doris Barton, is seen at his Fullerton home Monday, March 8, 2021. She died in late January of the coronavirus. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Doris Barton, center, is seen with her family, from left: son Richard Barton, son Charles Barton, husband Clyde Barton and daughter Debbie Sanchez. Doris Barton died of coronavirus on Jan. 31, 2021, at age 90. (Photo courtesy of Clyde Barton)

• Clyde and Doris Barton are seen in an old photograph. Doris Barton died of the coronavirus Jan. 31, 2021, at age 90. (Photo courtesy of Clyde Barton)

• Debbie Sanchez, left, is seen with her mother, Doris Barton, who died of coronavirus Jan. 31, 2021. (Photo courtesy of Clyde Barton)

• Clyde Barton, right, is seen with his daughter, Debbie Sanchez, at his Fullerton home Monday, March 8, 2021. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Some of Doris Barton’s needlework is seen at her Fullerton home Monday, March 8, 2021. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Clyde Barton, seen at his Fullerton home Monday, March 8, 2021, lost his wife, Doris Barton to the coronavirus. She died Jan. 31, 2021, at age 90, after apparently contracting the virus at a hospital she went to for an injured knee. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

“Her life was really full,” said Deborah Barton Sanchez, the eldest of three children. “She was loving, energetic, funny, artistic, sharp – just a good person.”

Barton died at age 90 from complications of the coronavirus, apparently contracted when she was undergoing physical therapy for an injured knee.

Clyde Barton’s job as a petroleum engineer took the young family around the United States, from Colorado to Wyoming to Texas to Oregon. Later, they alighted in various Orange County cities  – Westminster, then Cypress, then Orange and, finally, a Fullerton retirement community.

Their younger son, Charles, was born with severe learning disabilities.

“Doris devoted a major part of her life to him, until he could move to an independent living home as an adult,” Clyde Barton said.

Yet she found a way to juggle the needs of all three kids.

“Even though we each had very different activities, she was there for all of us,” said Sanchez, a retired microbiologist. “I had dance and piano and my brother Richard had all kinds of sports. She was a very strong person.”

Later, Barton delighted in her seven grandchildren and 13 great-grand children – dancing with them and sitting down on the floor to play.

Two years ago, Richard Barton – a petroleum engineer like his dad – died of brain cancer.

“Whatever our trials and tribulations, Doris went through them with grace and graciousness,” Clyde Barton said.

Doris Barton always kept the family laughing with random outbursts and jokes.

“One evening were were sitting around the dinner table and Mom suddenly announced, ‘I want a piece of coconut pie!’” Sanchez recalled. “We had no pie in the house, and coconut wasn’t even her favorite kind of pie.”

She was a talented seamstress who enjoyed creating quirky Halloween costumes not only for her children but also the grownups. One year, Doris and Clyde went to a party as Bonnie and Clyde. Another time, they were scotch and soda – he in a kilt and she in a cardboard “can.”

After her children were grown, Doris Barton picked up needlepoint – and not just the simple “home sweet home” kind of embroidery.

“She painted with thread,” her husband said – replicating, for instance, a picture of roses she found in a seed catalog.

Clyde Barton summed up his wife of 69 years in three words: “She was a sweetheart.”

The Link Lonk


March 16, 2021 at 10:50PM
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Fullerton resident Doris Barton, who was ‘energetic, funny, artistic,’ died at 90 of coronavirus - OCRegister

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