Florence Mason Obituary

Florence Dorothy Barth Mason, age 82, died peacefully at home on August 5, 2025, of an unregulated eating disorder and complications of dementia. A private memorial was held at home.

Born on December 12, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York, she was the child of Florence Lee Nagel and John Mason; niece of Ethel Carolyn Nagel; wife to Roland Barth; mother of Jocelyn Ann (Barth) McGrath and Alexis Yvonne Barth; and grandmother of Augustus Iler McGrath and Mary Caroline McGrath. She grew up in Richmond Hills, Queens. She met Roland, a resident of the Bronx, in Wisconsin, when they were both at college. They wed in September of 1964 and began their sixty year marriage. She received a B.S. in history from the University of Wisconsin and Masters of Library Science from Pratt Institute.

The couple first lived in the Bronx, where Jocelyn was born, then Troy, where Alexis was born. They settled in Chatham, New York, for about ten years, where the girls grew up. After this, Flo and Roland lived in Canaan, New York, where they built a house, and then went north to Port Henry, where they purchased a geodesic dome. Flo and Roland ultimately settled in Stephentown, New York, where they lived for the last twenty-five years.

Although Flo worked for a time as a librarian-at public, school, and hospital libraries-she found her true calling in her forties as an artist and stone sculptor. She created pieces primarily in soapstone and alabaster, drawing on mythology, and a multitude of animal and organic forms. She exhibited widely in northeast New York and New England, including the Hudson Valley, the Adirondacks, and the Berkshires. Her pieces reside in many homes in our region and beyond.

Flo was a seeker, as an artist and a person, interested in what was underneath. She practiced many forms of inquiry over the decades, including Jungian dream symbolism, astrology, the I Ching, different forms of Buddhism, earth practices, and through it all, she loved Jesus. She had amazing hand skill at whatever she turned to: knitting and crochet, basketry, beads and jewelry making. She was a fierce defender of animals and trees, rescuer of cats and feeder of birds. She loved her friends, and enjoyed many conversations untangling the complexities of life, of families and relationships. Although a homebody at heart, in her seventies, she traveled, and took up hiking and ballet. In her late seventies, she renewed her relationship with her stone carving, creating personal works of beauty and complexity.

Flo is greatly missed by her family and friends. We are grateful for her gifts, and especially for the spirit alive in her stones.