Harriett Toftness Barrett dies

Harriett played accordion at every FACR since 1953. Following is her obituary as printed in the Washington County Register in Shell Lake WI.

Harriet W. Barrett, age 95, died April 21 in Ft. Myers, Florida. She had been blessed with excellent health and a vibrant life until the past few months.

Harriet, born on March 2, 1913, was one of eleven children of William and Hulda Toftness. The Toftness family moved from Boyd Minnesota to their family dairy farm at Shell Lake when Harriet was four years old. Education, music, and service were stressed in the family and Harriet carried that focus throughout her life.

When a junior in high school she met her first true love, Melvin Swan, at a dance where Harriet played saxophone and clarinet in the Toftness family band. They both vowed they would never miss a Saturday night date and dance thereafter. After graduation from Shell Lake, Harriet enrolled in Rice Lake normal school in Spooner for a one-year program to receive a teacher’s certificate. She then began her long teaching career in the one-room school at Dahlstrom Brook in 1932. Melvin would drive her home to the Toftness farm every weekend, often by horse and sleigh in the winter.

Harriet married Melvin Swan in 1935. Because married teachers couldn’t receive contracts she served as a periodic substitute teacher for the next few years. They lived on their farm in South Dewey where Melvin was a farmer and owner of a cattle trucking business with his brother Ray.

Early in her teaching at Dahlstrom Brook Harriet expressed her concern to the School Board about the lack of a piano. One of the board members made a comment that would profoundly influence the rest of her life. He said that he owned an accordion which she could buy for ten dollars. She bought the accordion, learned to play it, and thus began a remarkable life-time activity in both formal and informal leadership in group singing. “Sing your life away” was her theme song, and she instilled that joy of music and recreational singing in the lives of thousands of people, young and old, throughout her long life.

As a young teacher and mother Harriet continued her education, taking evening undergraduate courses and then for a number of years summer school courses at Superior College. Her educational pursuits continued until she received a Master’s degree from Superior in 1964.

Harriet accepted an appointment as music and English teacher at Shell Lake in 1943. Her bands and choral groups won many awards over the years. She briefly left the field of teaching in the early 1950’s to do social work, but quickly realized her calling was in music. She returned to teaching at Minong for a year to begin a band and music education program, and then was convinced to accept an elementary music teaching position in the Spooner school system. Superintendent Antholz, a believer in the importance of music in children’s lives, insisted that every child should have some music everyday, meaning that Harriet taught mornings in the Spooner elementary classrooms and afternoons at three different rural schools, eating lunch on the road as she traveled. She retired from teaching in 1970.

In 1970 Harriet and Melvin bought the farm from her parents where she was raised, now turned into the Red Barn Campground. They also started to spend winters in Arcadia, Florida. Melvin died in a dump truck accident in 1972 and Harriet continued to run the campground with the assistance of daughter Karen and grandchildren for a number of years. Lee and Dotty Swan now own the campground. In 1977 she married Harry Ziegler in Arcadia. He passed away in 1991. In 1995 she married Clark Barrett and he died in 2005. Both previously widowed, Harry and Clark were also close Florida friends of Melvin and all were remarkably loving of Harriet. She was truly blessed in her marriages.

Harriet is survived by her two children, Lee (Dotty) who resides in Ft. Myers and Shell Lake, and Karen (Fred) Miller of Raleigh, N.C., eight grandchildren Kevin, David, Sarah (Eric McDonald), Stephen, and Ellyn Swan, and Michael Miess, Robert Miess, and Michelle Williams, and 17 great-grandchildren. Five of her siblings survive her: Aagot, Gordon, Doris, Gloria, and Forest (Bill). She was preceded in death by five siblings: Irving, Eva, Vivian, Luther, and June and many nieces and nephews.

A Memorial Service for Harriet will take place at Salem Lutheran Church, Shell Lake on Saturday, June 21, 10:30 a.m. A visitation the evening before is being planned and will be announced later. Memorials may be sent to Salem or to the donor’s choice.

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