Anne (Hammes) Baren

CORNWALL BRIDGE — Anne (Hammes) Baren died at home in Cornwall Bridge on Aug. 16, 2018, in the company of family and caregivers. 

She was born in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1930, the daughter of  Florence and John Hammes. 

A graduate of the Albany Academy for Girls, after studying at Mannes School of Music and Barnard College, A.B., 1952, Anne stepped into a “dream job,” helping Dr. William Kolodny open and run the Grace Rainey Rodgers Auditorium at the Met. 

Marriage to New York architect Paul Baren in 1959 took her from the city to Yorktown, N.Y., then to Purdy’s Station, N.Y., and to a house of Paul’s design in Cornwall Bridge. 

As they raised two sons, Anne shone in a variety of jobs. She introduced databases as administrator at the Katonah Gallery (now Museum) and worked at several other Katonah institutions and businesses. 

She took pride in serving as administrator of Cornwall Bridge’s affordable housing, Kugeman Village.

Anne was ahead of her time. Mr. Darcy would have called her “a woman of accomplishment” — Anne would have frowned. 

She played the piano for pleasure, cooked like a pro and enjoyed digital and linguistic challenges. 

In later years she kept up her keyboard skills, qwerty and 88s, read everything, and flourished among friends in a woman’s group, in the Cornwall Congregational Church and in the Democratic Town Committee. 

She is survived by her husband, Paul; her sons, Ian and Andrew and his wife, Erica; her grandchildren, Alex and his wife, Katina, and Rebecca; and a sister, Mary Corbin of Virginia. 

There will be a memorial gathering for Anne at the United Church of Christ in Cornwall, Congregational on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, consider a donation to the Cornwall Food and Fuel Bank in care of the Cornwall Congregational Church, in memory of Anne.