[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5856]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING ELEANOR BYERS

 Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, today I wish to celebrate the life 
of my aunt, Eleanor Atwater Byers, who passed away peacefully on March 
20, 2017. Nunnie, as she was affectionately known, was born on November 
30, 1927, in Fall River, MA, and grew up in Tiverton and Providence, 
RI.
  She grew up doing anything she could with water such as swimming, 
fishing, and sailing, as well as climbing trees, collecting arrowheads, 
and communing with the natural world on and around Nanaquaket Pond for 
the first 14 years of her life in Tiverton. At 12 years old, Nunnie 
took her first photograph with a Brownie camera of her best friend. At 
age 14, her family started to summer in Little Compton, RI, and while 
her childhood pals continued to sail and swim, Nunnie photographed the 
Sakonnet landscape. She continued snapping pictures until age 22 and 
then never photographed again until 30 years later. After the loss of 
her family's home to fire in 1940, Nunnie and her family moved to 
Providence, where she attended Lincoln School. After graduating from 
Lincoln School in 1945, Nunnie went to Bradford Junior College in 
Haverhill, MA. Soon after graduating from Bradford in 1947, Nunnie 
suffered a broken back from a skiing accident which required a year's 
recovery, including many months in a full body cast. This injury would 
be a source of physical discomfort and limit her mobility for the rest 
of her life, but it would fail to squelch her mischievous and 
indomitable spirit.
  Ahead of her times and a true adventurer, Nunnie joined the American 
Friends Field Service and participated in a mission trip to the village 
of Santiago Ixcuintla in Nayarit, Mexico. She taught in health clinics 
and schools to improve the quality of life for the native Huichol and 
Mexican women and children with whom she fell in love. Soon after her 
return from Mexico, she accepted the marriage proposal of Randolph 
Kunhardt Byers, Jr., of Milton, MA, and they were married in August of 
1951.
  Randy's enlistment in the Army took them to Lawton, OK. They then 
returned to Rhode Island where Nunnie gave birth to their first of four 
children, Elizabeth ``Libby''. In 1955, they moved to Wilton, CT, while 
also bringing son Bartlett ``Bart'' Cooke into the world. Two more 
daughters were to follow, Eleanor ``Ellie'' and Mary.
  Nunnie created extraordinary homes showcasing naturally found objects 
and her photography. She also loved crafting joyful holiday 
celebrations, including such things as greeting trick-or-treaters 
dressed as a witch with a memorable cackle and laugh from the roof of 
the garage. She adored her dachshunds, West Highland white terriers, 
and chocolate lab, giving them people names to assure them of their 
family status.
  Her days in Mexico inspired memorable travels with Randy to 
Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico--again--Europe, and beyond, and she always had 
her camera at her side. She displayed her business acumen through 
leading a women's investment group, played paddle tennis, skated, cross 
country skied, fished, and boated. In 1970, Nunnie moved to her dream 
home in Wilton, which was surrounded by acres and acres of woods and on 
a reservoir. There, she balanced time communing with birds and skating 
on black ice with completing her job raising and launching her four 
teenagers, a job she later acknowledged to be one of the most 
gratifying, albeit societally underrecognized, accomplishments of her 
life.
  Once done with child rearing, Nunnie turned her attention back to her 
photographic artwork, and in 1980, she went back to school and studied 
photography seriously for 5 years, including participating in workshops 
abroad. She dug out her old Brownie black-and-white vintage negatives 
and set about developing them herself, along with new images she took 
with her Leica camera, at a local community dark room. She also mounted 
and framed the prints and then displayed them at photography shows and 
exhibits for all to enjoy. She also created several series of color 
postcards of her beloved Little Compton and sold them at the local 
general store. She experimented with images, wanting to show others 
what can be seen with the ``naive eye'' and produced a large volume of 
photographic work until her eyesight started failing her in her 80s. 
Nunnie shared her gift, teaching others how to see and how to construct 
interesting and aesthetically pleasing visuals.
  Nunnie was a force to be reckoned with, a fierce and passionate woman 
who felt and experienced life at a very deep level. Her sense of humor 
was full of wit, and time spent with her was always memorable. She 
stood her ground, valued truth, and supported others in being their own 
selves.
  She was predeceased by her parents, Eleanor Bartlett and David Hay 
Atwater. She was the sister of the late David ``Tiny'' Hay Atwater, 
Jr., and Damaris ``Dicie'' Sayre Atwater. Living to carry on her memory 
are her husband of 65 years, Randy, and her children, Elizabeth 
``Libby'' Moore and husband, Raoul, of Little Compton; Bartlett 
``Bart'' Cooke Byers of Denver, CO; Eleanor ``Ellie'' Byers of 
Shelburne, VT; and Mary Truslow and her husband, Charles, of Milton. 
Living to carry on her legacy are her grandchildren, Justin, Loren, 
Chas, Kelsey, Andrew, Will, and Graham. Living to carry on the Atwater 
legacy are her sister, Sally Anne ``Sadie'' Havens, and brother, 
Nathaniel ``Nate'' Bartlett Atwater, both of Little Compton.

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