Ann Williamson-Barbel

Longtime St. Thomas resident, Ann Williamson-Barbel, is being remembered as much for her kind heart as for the business acumen that she used to help establish the island as a premiere tourist destination.

Williamson-Barbel died at home, May 4, 2023, at the age of 85. Her death came less than four months after the death of her second husband of 27 years, the prominent St. Thomas businessman Leo Barbel.

Born in Jersey City, NJ and raised in Whitehouse Station, NJ, she was a 1955 graduate of Flemington High School. She met her first husband, Andrew Williamson, as a teenager and the couple married in 1957. She put her education on hold to work while he completed his studies in veterinary medicine at Cornell University. A few years later, Ann completed her degree at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT.

In 1964, they moved to St. Thomas where he set up a veterinary practice and she established herself as a multi-facetted businesswoman and a fixture in the community. She would go on to own several successful businesses which showcased her love of art and fashion.

What really marked Ann as exceptional, however, may have been her very personal brand of philanthropy. Along with her first husband, “Dr. Andy”, she helped establish the Humane Society on St. Thomas; sent upwards of a hundred care packages both to the American soldiers in Afghanistan and to the children suffering from the conflict; and in 1976 when an American Airlines plane crashed on landing at the St. Thomas Airport, killing and injuring many of its passengers and transfixing the community, Ann took in and offered solace to some of the survivors.

She wanted to be remembered for her kindness to all creatures, great and small, writing, “If I die prematurely, I want my family and friends to do random acts of kindness and make a person or an animal safer, happier, or less hungry. Thank you.”

She was preceded in death by her husband, Leopold (Leo) Barbel, and her parents, Anna and Edward Starczyk.

She is survived by her daughter, Lara (Sandy) Halliday; and son, Scott Williamson; granddaughters Kayla Halliday and Jeannine Jordan Williamson and grandson Ross Williamson; sisters Elizabeth (Charles) Fisher and Melinda Camouche; and brothers Gregory Starczyk and Alan (Nancy) Starczyk; and former husband Dr. Andrew J. Williamson (Margery “Mardi”); and caregiver extraordinaire, Julie Dominique.

Graveside services, officiated by Rev. Amy Lincoln, were held privately in Prospect Hill Cemetery, Flemington, NJ under the direction of the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822. For further information or to send an online condolence, please visit Ann’s Tribute Wall at www.holcombefisher.com.

Her more complete obituary can be found by following the link below:

https://stthomassource.com/content/2023/06/09/ann-williamson-barbel-dies-at-85/