Barbara Lair Stratton Appleton, a woman of boundless energy and enthusiasm, passed away peacefully at home in Granville, Vermont, on February 3, 2026, at the age of 91.
Born on July 31, 1934, in New Haven, Connecticut, she was the daughter of Helena (Zlotkowska) Stratton and William Herbert Stratton. A graduate of Hamden High School, Barbara began her career in design at just 17 when she was hired by Olin Mathieson (Winchester) to help redesign the Model 70 rifle. The youngest member – and the only woman – on a 19-person team, she reworked the trigger assembly and became the first woman to fire the newly renovated rifle.
She later served as assistant advertising manager at Safety Car Heating and Lighting in Hamden, Connecticut, contributed to the design of lighting and air-conditioning units for the Talgo Train (produced in 1994), and lived in Bermuda, where she worked as advertising manager for Masters, Ltd.
After returning to the United States, Barbara raised her four children in Connecticut and Ipswich, Massachusetts, while immersing herself in traditional crafts. She spun on an antique wheel, wove on a loom, sewed clothing, and created textiles. In 1976, she walked through Boston in Colonial costume, spinning wool and demonstrating her skills. She lectured on colonial fabric-making, taught plant dyeing and spinning – including for the Massachusetts Audubon Society – won spinning contests, served as a docent at the Merrimack Valley Textile Museum in Andover, and produced woven goods for Bonwit Teller in Boston.
Barbara also worked in Boston as assistant to the president of LeMessurier Associates and collaborated with architect Carl Koch on the development of Lewis Wharf. In Medfield, Massachusetts, she opened a boarding stable on her property, where she and her children cared for 17 horses.
Eventually settling in Moretown, Vermont, she met and married Malcolm Appleton, a local architect. In Waitsfield, she opened her own interior design business and later Furniture Etcetera, blending beauty and functionality in homes locally and beyond. She and Malcolm loved travel, vintage cars, and the outdoors, spending winters at their homes in Tucson and Santa Fe.
A lifelong motorsports enthusiast, Barbara raced MGs, participated in the Prescott Hill Climb in England, drove the pace car at Michigan International Speedway, and completed the Circuit of Britain in their 1955 MGTF. She was also an avid Bridge player and helped form the Ladies Bridge Club.
An enthusiastic forager, and amateur mycologist, she gathered wild cranberries and beach plums and was known for her Greek, Polish, and Italian cooking and lively Boxing Day parties. She adored her border collies Tippy, Lucas, and Gem, and Rotax the papillon.
Warm, candid, generous, and spirited, Barbara loved her family, animals, and the outdoors. She is survived by her husband, Malcolm Appleton; her daughter, Jeremie Keyworth Millow; her son, Will Keyworth; her stepdaughter, Laura Appleton Smith; and her grandchildren, Christopher Millow, Timothy Darr, and Deirdre Darr. She was predeceased by her daughters, Lisa Keyworth and Heidi Keyworth Albanese, and her grandson, Alexander Millow.
As she said, “It was a heck of a ride.”
