EAST COAST AND NEW ENGLAND TENNIS CHAMP SUCCUMBS

It is with profound sadness that the family of Barbara Shirley Loatman announce her passing which occurred Saturday, December 27, 2025. She was 92.

Barbara Shirley (Hector) Loatman was born in 1933, the second of Harold and Matilda Hector's five children.

She was educated in Boston public schools, graduating from Roxbury Memorial High School for Girls at age 16. She went on to Boston Clerical School learning shorthand and other secretarial skills.  In her quest for higher education, Barbara received an Associates Degree from Lowell Technological School, a degree from Boston State College, Bachelor's Degree in accounting and a Master's Degree in public administration, both from Northeastern University.

Barbara lived in Boston her entire life.

She wed Clinton William Loatman in 1956.  Their union produced one child, a daughter Stephanie Ann.

Barbara was employed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in various positions during her career. In public service. The Department of Public Health was her longest stint, with positions as budget director or payroll supervisor for the Women Infant and Children program, and Governor Michael Dukakis's Committee on Criminal Justice.

After retiring from the State of Massachusetts, Barbara was not quite ready to end her career as a public servant. She was hired by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist in disaster relief efforts nationwide and in Guam. FEMA's Finance and Administration office is where she would lend her expert budgetary and payroll processing skills.

Barbara was elected to serve on many boards of directors, including St. Joseph's Cooperative Housing, The Italian Home for Children, Massachusetts Association of Housing Cooperatives, and the Committee of Minority Public Administrators.

Barbara was a tennis champion practically her entire life. The sport was at the center of her life for many years. She won more than 200 trophies, playing and winning in singles and doubles matches up and down the East Coast and New England, especially at the annual matches in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard. She was Tournament Director for years at the annual Oak Bluffs Tennis Tournament and the New England Tennis Association's annual tournament in New Haven, Connecticut.  She was a charter member of the American Tennis Association (ATA) and a lifelong member of the Sportsmen's Tennis Club of Boston.

As a member of the Colored (later Civic) Women's Bowling League (CWBL), Barbara excelled as a valued member in bowling leagues across the City of Boston, winning almost 100 trophies and several 'MVP' awards. What was her secret weapon in all of these wins? She was left-handed, and proud of it!

Barbara held numerous roles in the Mt. Zion Chapter #20, The Massachusetts Order of the Eastern Star, including worthy Matron in 1991 and Chapter Secretary. She also enjoyed the discovery of family ancestors uncovered by her sisters' research. To further her knowledge about her ancestral history, Barbara joined lineage societies. In 2014, she became a member of the Boston Tea Party Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). In 2020 she joined the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAJGS)-NE Chapter. Two years ago, she became a founding member of the Society of the First African Families of English America (SOFAFEA).

Barbara was a life-long traveler, enjoying many of those adventures with family members, to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Canada, and most of the Caribbean Islands many times over. The beaches and Independence and Carnival celebrations in Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Maarten/St. Martin, and Trinidad and Tobago were family favorites.  Whether it was a cruise in the warm waters of the Mediterranean or the chilly waters of Alaska, she always had a suitcase ready to go. Vacations were her passion.

What an extraordinary life she lived, jam packed with adventures that many only dreamed of. Family members and friends witnessed her grab the brass ring to involve herself in all that life had to offer and have treasured photos, videos, and personal recollections and mementoes to cherish, enjoy and share. We wish we had a photo of her in the cockpit while a student in flight school. We are left to our imaginations.

To celebrate her life, Barbara leaves her daughter, Stephanie Daniel; granddaughter, Chiara Turner; sisters Beverly (Kirk) Hector-Smith, Carol (William) Hector-Harris, Margaret (Willie Brown), and Diane Whitfield; brothers James (Emma) Gums and Lawrence Whitfield; nieces, Gayle (Stanley) Earle; Denise (Rodney) Parham; nephews Jãn (Alicia) Harris; Sharif (Charde) Harris; grandnephews Sean Earle, Justin Heggie, Sayvon (L'Nayah) Foster, Sharif Harris II, Idris Harris, and Harper Harris; grandnieces Kai Harris, Jãna Harris, Kristiana Jones, Zoeè Harris, Sanaa Harris; great grandnephews Aaron Earle and Kairo Lash; great grandnieces Hailey Earle and Jessica Earle; special cousins Doris and Jay Clark, Lynne McCall, and David Robinson; other loving family members, friends, and professional associates.

Barbara was preceded in death by her parents, Harold Raphael Hector, Sr. and Matilda Rachel Robinson Hector, her sister Elaine V. Hector Barker, and her brother Harold (Sonny) Raphael Hector, Jr.