Elizabeth Kathryn Stone came from the comfortable refinements of upper middle-class America.
She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1939, but went to live in Washington, D.C. and then Springfield, Massachusetts, when her father became president of Springfield College, a private university.
At the age of 17, when she was asked what her first three choices of a vocation were, she replied teaching, religious education and school counseling.
She was educated at the MacDuffie School for Girls and the Alice Deal Junior High where she was taught the hallowed virtues of loving one's country, one's flag and one's god.
She became president of her sophomore class, vice-president of the Athletic Association and in her final year was school prefect.
She belonged to the basketball club, the hockey team, the tennis club, the Current Events Club, the Glee Club, the French Club, the Latin Club and Youth Fellowship.
Her prime and sheltered existence in Springfield is best reflected in her answers to the question in the Carleton admission form: “What work experience have you had?”
Little Betsy Stone replied: “Camp counseling, Sunday School teaching and baby sitting.”
A pen portrait of her deeply conventional and conservative upbringing is contained in her application to Carleton. She wrote:
Until I was fourteen years old, I lived in Washington, DC. Here our family did many things as a unit.
The family council, attending church together, and Saturday afternoon family tennis doubles were all an important part of my childhood.
At the end of second grade I was sent away to a YWCA camp. Here I gained my sense of independence and my love of camping.
From the first grade all the way up through Junior High, there was nothing I liked more than to play football and baseball with a bunch of neighborhood boys.
When I entered seventh grade I started to play the flute and soon joined the band and orchestra. I also had a wonderful time acting in some of the plays that the dramatic club put on.
I was president of my section, a member of the student council, and worked in the office. Consequently my school work suffered.
In junior high I started my career as a baby sitter and first realized how much enjoyment I get from working with children.
Our family toured the country's parks and forests and made a report on our finds to the National Parks Department. After the trip, we had the experience of telling about it on the Voice of America.
When we left Washington at the end of my eighth grade year, it was not without regret. We missed the many foreign guests, the excellent public school system and the many opportunities which come with living in the national capital.
The summer we moved I returned for my third summer to Camp Miniwanca, a Christian leadership training camp in Michigan. I went to this camp at an age when I was easily influenced and my experiences there have had a great effect on me.
The sand dunes, lakes, pine trees and wonderful people provided an almost Utopian atmosphere. After camp I went to my new home in Springfield, Mass., where the family had to adjust to a smaller house and a different atmosphere.
Here I started in the MacDuffie School for Girls. Because I attended this school I missed out on many things which go with a high school experience.
Nevertheless, I believe that I have gained far more than I have lost for I have had the opportunity to study under excellent teachers who have made my courses not only difficult but inspiring.
We have had small classes and because of this have had some marvelous discussions.
Recently I have had two experiences which have helped to confirm my idea that I would like to go into education. One was my counselling job at a Girl Scout camp last summer.
Here I was working with fifth and sixth grade girls for nine weeks. Although this taxed my ingenuity and patience, I loved every minit (sic).
This winter I have been teaching a Sunday School class also. I have my own room with ten second graders. With the wonderful equipment in our church I have been able to do many interesting things with the children.
One of the most thrilling and interesting things I have ever done was to take a trip to Europe with my family.
We had an exciting trip over because we sailed on a student boat. Besides seeing just about every country from the tourist (sic) point of view we had many unusual experiences.
Our family which consists of six people traveled around in a Volks Wagon Bus (sic), camping at night. We felt that between camping next to Europeans and staying with our German and English relatives we got to know the people pretty well.
We stayed in a dorm at Jesus College at Oxford University for a week where Daddy was attending a conference. Here the students told me about the life and traditions of this famous university.
I was fortunate enough to meet a girl in London who attended an English girls school like my own in this country.
I spent a day at her school going to classes and meeting her friends. I found that the English girls had many misconceptions (sic) of American young people.
Another high point of the trip was being able to be in Vienna the day the four occupying powers gave Austria her freedom.
We not only watched a colorful ceremony but had the chance to talk with the Austrians about what lay ahead for their country.
At that point in the trip we also visited the Iron Curtain, an experience I shall never forget. The whole trip gave us many friends from different lands and opened our eyes to the fact that Europe and the US have much to share.
This was pure music to the Carleton selection board; she was admitted enthusiastically.
She plunged into the social and cultural life at the college with the same energy as her secret fiance, Jack Barnes. Like him, she betrayed not the slightest trace of radicalism.
She joined the Ski Club, the Tennis Club, the Sunday Night Club, the Methodist Group and the Liberal Religious Fellowship.
She belonged to the Winter Carnival Publicity Committee, the Gridley basketball team, the Carleton Student Association events committee and was treasurer and social chairman of Gridley Hall.
She was chairman of the tennis mixed doubles tournament and acted as Girl Scout swimming instructor.
Somewhere in the midst of this hectic social and sporting round she found time for politics. She belonged to the Young Democrats and, like Barnes, she attended the “Challenge” debates and took membership of the International Relations Club (IRC).
When Barnes took on his new public persona as a “revolutionary” she followed suit. After graduation they married and moved to Evanston, Illinois.
She dropped a line to her old college a year later saying:
Jack and I are still both in school at Northwestern. He is in economics and I am studying for my history Master's oral exam and taking some courses in political science to pass some teaching requirements for Chicago.
When Barnes emerged publicly in the SWP as a “revolutionary socialist” a few years later, an irate Carletonian wrote to the authorities bitterly complaining that the college was turning out “reds.”
The administration noted the protest but said nothing. The reason? They knew about the activities of Mr. and Mrs. Barnes.