SALT LAKE CITY — Vivian "Nana" Mary Barry Kooyman, 91, died April 11, 2011. Kooyman was born on March 27, 1919, in Yonkers, N.Y., to Charles Aloysius Barry and Mary Elizabeth O’Brien. She was the youngest of five daughters known as "The Barry Girls," an amazingly close-knit group of sisters who loved each other fiercely, and who raised her after her parents died. She attended school in New York, including St. Joseph’s Grammar School, and worked in New York City for an insurance company. She later worked at her brother-in-law’s jewelry store in New London, Conn. It was there that she met Harold Kooyman, her sailor, who swept her off her feet with his broad shoulders and bell-bottomed uniform. They were married on June 20, 1942 and crisscrossed the country before settling in Salt Lake City, Utah after World War II. They would have celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary this June. She was a wonderful wife and mother who had a way of making everything beautiful. She was a talented cook and a very gifted seamstress. She loved poetry, the piano, all things French and traveling. She was devoted to St. Ambrose Catholic Church, and volunteered her time willingly to the Altar Society as the chair of the Bereavement Committee. In 2001, Bishop George H.Niederauer recognized her as Catholic Woman of the Year from St. Ambrose Parish. She is survived by her husband, Harold S. Kooyman; daughter Elisabeth (Kent); son Barry (JoAnn); granddaughter Jennifer (Aaron); grandson Jonathan (Alexis); great-grandchildren Max, Vivian, and Harrison; step-grandchildren Jeff (Angie), Angie (Jeremy), Jennifer (Ryan), and Jonathan (Letice), who blessed her with 16 additional step-great-grandchildren. A funeral Mass was celebrated at Saint Ambrose Catholic Church. Committal was in Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery.
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