Nancy Mildred (Holshouser) Barnard

If you have seen counted cross stitch or ever admired the work of a counted cross stitch piece, then you would have gotten along well with Nancy Mildred Holshouser, known as Nancy Barnard after marriage in September 1956. She entered eternal life on March 16, 2026. Her spirit is carried on by her 3 children, 3 grandchildren, and countless cousins, nieces and nephews.

Nancy was born and grew up in North Berwick, ME, then went to nursing school at St. Anselm’s Elliott School of Nursing in the early 1950s and graduated as a registered nurse whose career spanned several decades in Manchester’s Elliott Hospital’s nursery.  It was in school that she met lifelong friends Jane (Moxie) Celen, Carol (Barnard) Strickland, Ruth (Dinwoodie) Normandeau and many others.  She eventually married Carol’s brother, Gordon!  The friendships trickled down to their children who are also lifelong close friends.

Nancy was a lover of animals, having cared for many a dog, cat, bird, mouse and stray. It could be said she loved animals more than people because her pets were family and family always came first for Nancy. 

She surrounded herself with memories of her family. She carried a jeweled memento from her mother in her purse, treasured the salt containers from her mother, grandmother and great grandmother on her kitchen counter, and was known to have a few place settings buried in the side cabinet from aunts, parents and relatives long passed. Her mantle was covered in pictures of generation after generation of aunts, cousins, mothers, grandmothers, nieces, nephews, uncles, daughters and sons. If you opened a cupboard in her kitchen you could admire the donut pot her mother in law used to make donuts in or the electric skillet her mother used to cook many a Sunday dish. If you lingered a moment in the dining room you could peruse the display cabinet from her closest friend who lived a mile down the road and within it were many trinkets from Aunt Millie, Aunt Carol, Nana and Bumpa, Gremum and Grandad, Aunt Mary and of course her best friend, Jane Celen. 

At Thanksgiving there was bound to be a recipe card or two sitting out on the counter with Chocolate Cake from Aunt Bea, or Angel Pie from Nana, while Nancy stood grumbling nearby about how the oven wasn’t working right and the cake didn’t come out exactly like Aunt Bea’s. There was bound to be a small fruit salad sitting on the table at each place setting with canned fruit set in a bowl of lettuce and topped with a dollop of mayonnaise and cottage cheese. If you were hankering for a snack, Nancy would whip you up some nicely buttered toast doused in brown sugar, and baked in the oven until golden brown. At Christmas, the time honored tradition of decorating a tree cut from the property was respected and hung on the fireplace were those wonderfully stuffed counted cross stitch stockings with her grandchildren's names embroidered on the fronts. Their favorite part - an orange or two stuffed into the candy filled stocking. Nancy loved family and family traditions and surrounded herself with these memories her entire life. 

Nancy and her spouse of 69 years enjoyed the beach life and travelled annually for many years to Antigua and Aruba. Each summer the family spent two or three weeks at the end of August renting a cottage at Wells beach in ME. She loved sitting on the beach doing her counted cross stitch and relaxing to the sound of the waves while Gordon, her husband, sailed one of his makeshift boats or windsurfed the ocean waters. In the Caribbean, she listened to the sounds of the steel drum music played by locals trying to make a living and watched while young women made crafts and braided tourists' hair on the resort beaches.

She is survived by her children and grandchildren, who she enjoyed sharing stories about - Joanne Groom of Litchfield, ME (husband Jim Groom), James Barnard of Austin Texas (husband Carl Forrester), David Barnard of Marlborough, NH (wife Khisha Pratt, and their children Qadir Barnard-Pratt, Dakarai Barnard-Pratt, and Kiani Barnard-Pratt). She is also survived by her brother in law Alan Barnard, sister in law Mary Holshouser, and countless nieces, nephews, cousins and second cousins too numerous to list but too important not to mention. Nancy is reunited with her husband and favorite beach buddy who loved to windsurf, Gordon Leigh Barnard, her parents Margaret and James (Jake) Holshouser, and brother Allen Holshouser. 

Nancy's services will be held graveside at Hillside Cemetery in North Berwick, ME at 11:00 am August 10, 2026, orchestrated by Johnson Funeral Home of North Berwick, ME. Please dress comfortably for walking on uneven grass. Directly following the service will be a gathering in celebration of Nancy at the Community Center located at 266 Lebanon Rd, North Berwick, ME 03906.  In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Congregational Church of Goffstown, NH.

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