Barbara Ughetta was born to Valentine and Barbara Berges in 1927. A middle child of three, she was born and raised in New Rochelle, NY during the Great Depression. She remembers that times were hard, but also realized that her parents made sure to give her and her siblings fond memories. Polio was running rampant and her parents tried to keep their daughters away from crowds of children. On Sundays they would load up their 1930 Woody station wagon and head to the beach for a picnic and fun in the Long Island Sound.
During her high school years Ms. Ughetta choose a “Pre-Flight” class as an elective. Fifty years later she was going through her yearbook and found a letter stating that she had passed the pilot’s written test! She found it amusing that if she had known that she had passed she may have made a different career choice. She also recalls skipping to join the VJ Day celebration in Times Square.
Ms. Ughetta was part of the last graduating class of the US Cadet Nursing Corp, a military program to produce a lot of nurses. Later she became a school nurse. She also earned a bachelor of science degree at SUNY Oneonta in NY.
She fell in love with Raoul Andre Ughetta, an Air Force pilot, whom she married in 1949. Together they had three children. She was “9,000 balloons up in the air” happy when the polio vaccine was invented! She no longer had to worry about her children coming down with polio.
Ms. Ughetta retired in 1993 enjoying time with her grandchildren. She wrote a letter for her first grandchild that offers advice about life and continues to read it to each grandchild and greatgrandchild as they reach the age of 13. After retirement she also had time to develop a career in art, working with watercolors, acrylics, and portraiture. She currently resides at Friendship Assisted Living in Roanoke where she is very involved with the activity programs and has many friends.
Friendship Assisted Living, Roanoke