The Sun shines on Barbara Braly
By Joanne Bender
Sun contributor
Year after year, spring till fall, you notice a cute little red car buzzing around Glen Arbor.
This gem, a 1969 Volkswagen Fastback boasting only 36,140 miles, is driven by 91-year-old summer resident Barbara Braly. The car was originally owned by Barbara’s mother, Ilse, and was clocking 1,600 miles when Barbara took ownership. Many comment and smile when seeing her drive by. Teenagers cheer “cool car!” She does drive each year to and from her winter home in Perry Park, Colorado, to her local home here, but not in her VW. She is behind the wheel of her much newer Toyota RAV4. The trip is about 1,300 miles each way.
Barbara’s 91st birthday was Aug. 17 and she celebrated with good friends, treating her to a dinner at Blu. And her cottage windowsill is lined with greeting cards from loving family and friends. Asked if she had a recipe for living a long life, she replied, “Don’t quit living just because you are getting older.”
Her talents are as many as her years. Really. She graduated from UCLA with a major in Physical Education and a minor in Art History. These days she plays golf (every Wednesday here), tennis (every Tuesday in Colorado), and sometimes still drives in the winter to ski at Copper Mountain, a two-hour drive each way to and from her home in Colorado. And she paints lovely oil canvasses.
I am fortunate to own a few of Barbara’s miniature oil paintings, which I cherish. She has a booth every year—for 35 years so far—and is a very popular vendor at the annual Glen Arbor Women’s Club Art Fair. Talented Barbara is able to capture light and color in her painted objects with beautiful strokes of the palette knife.
Barbara is a first-generation American; her parents moved to the United States from Germany following World War I. She was born in 1927. Her father, Heinz Handorf, was a doctor– a general practitioner and surgeon in Northville, Mich. He designed and built furniture for their Glen Lake home on Sunset Drive in 1962, where Barbara happily spends her summers. Her mother, Ilse Handorf, was Barbara’s role model, “a positive and strong woman.” She called them Papi and Mutti.
Speaking of the Glen Lake home, when Barbara and her husband, Colonel Hal Braly, began spending summers there, Barbara credits joining the Glen Lake Yacht Club with making their residency a happy one. Lifetime friendships for the Bralys were made there. And Barbara later became the first Woman Commodore of the Yacht Club, from 1995-1997.
She and her husband met while both were students at UCLA. They were married on June 23, 1951. While there, Hal played football; his positions were linebacker, fullback, andpunter. He began his career in the Air Force after receiving his commission as a second lieutenant. He was a pilot in B29s, B50s, B47s, and B52s, logging between 4,000 and 5,000 hours in the latter plane. Following retirement as a colonel, he and Barbara built their present home in Perry Park. Hal retired in 1979 and died in 2013. Barbara voices her love of him. “I am blessed to have had a wonderful husband,” she says.
Her family includes her son, Scott, who lives in Lincoln, Neb., as does his daughter, Jennica. Scott’s daughter, Jill, her husband Dan, and daughter Ayla, age 3, live in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Rather than give advice to the younger generation, Barbara regrets that children no longer gather to play games outside such as “kick the can”, “hide and seek”, and “tag”. They don’t seem to read books as much anymore, as she did as a child. She laments that electronics and computers have taken over.
Barbara Braly, a mentor to many. Count me as one of those.
