Barbara Bonnycastle

Barbara Bonnycastle Erskine, of the 2700 block of South Ives St., died in her home on Saturday, July 15, 1995, after a long struggle with emphysema.

Born in San Francisco, Mrs. Erskine was the daughter of the late highly decorated Colonel Henry Churchill Bonnycastle and the late Marie Kennedy Bonnycastle, both of Louisville, Kent. She was a direct descendant of Commodore Joshua Barney, U.S. Naval hero of the War of 1812, and of Professor Charles Bonnycastle, who was persuaded by Thomas Jefferson to leave his home in England to become the first chairman of the department of natural philosophy and later of mathematics at the University of Virginia when it opened in 1825. It was widely said that Professor Bonnycastle possessed the most original mind of any teacher of mathematics in the United States in his time.

Mrs. Erskine attended the Agnes Irwin School in Philadelphia and later was graduated from The Choate School in Boston. She was an accomplished equestrienne and teacher of riding; for a number of years she was a featured performer on horseback in the annual Washington Society Circus. As the niece of Marvin McIntyre, special adviser and secretary to president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mrs. Erskine was often a guest at White House functions during the Roosevelt administration. Her marriage to Frank G. Erskine of Jackson, Miss., a graduate of the University of Mississippi and Cornell University, was a highlighted event of the 1937 Capitol social season.

Mr. Erskine, a civil engineer and officer in the Seabees during World War II, was a pioneer in the development of lightweight concrete. In 1954 he became the first managing director of the Expanded Shale Clay and Slate Institute, with its offices in the National Press Building in Washington. Mr. Erskine, a golfer and world traveler well into his eighties, died August 5, 1992. In his memory the Frank G. Erskine Award is given annually for outstanding achievement in international engineering design.

Until the onset of her illness, Mrs. Erskine accompanied her husband on his many travels as a consultant. In 1970 the Erskines were guests of the Soviet Union government for talks on construction projects. Mrs. Erskine was warmly welcomed on their travels as a cousin of the late Aleen Muldoon Bingham, wife of the United States ambassador to the Court of St. James during World War II. Mrs. Bingham founded and directed the Bundles for Britain program during and after the war.

Mrs. Erskine was an Episcopalian and a member of the Army-Navy Country Club, the Aurora Hills Woman's Club, and the Aurora Hills Books Club. She was until the end of her life an avid bridge player.

Mrs. Erskine is survived by one sister, Jane Bonnycastle Bender of San Antonio, Texas; two daughters, Marilyn Lithgow Erskine Darnell of Burke, Va., and Deborah Bonnycastle Erskine Lankford of Virginia Beach; her sons-in-law, Capt. Jack Darnell (USN Ret.) and Paul G. Lankford; three grandchildren, Deborah Darnell Rast of Bonnycastle Farm, Central, S.C., Stephen Erskine Darnell of Alexandria, and Alan Hendley Churchill Lankford of Virginia Beach; and a niece and two nephews.

In accordance with Mr. and Mrs. Erskine's wishes, a joint funeral service with full military honors will be held for them at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, July 21, 1995, at 9 a.m. Everly Funeral Home of Alexandria is handling all the arrangements.⁵