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A Practical Joker

Christine J. Barbuto was one of those people whom everyone else wanted to be around. Her friends from the University of Rhode Island recalled how they hung out in 106 Barlow Hall, where she lived with Jennifer Tice in her freshman year. Erik J. Granskog, a college friend, spoke of the good times they had "playing charades, wearing stupid hats, watching `Cheers,' dancing and singing to the Violent Femmes over and over, inventing silly drinking games."

Dianne Walsh, one of Ms. Barbuto's two older sisters, recalled an old family tale: when someone praised Ms. Walsh's singing at a concert, Ms. Barbuto asked, "How long have you had this problem with your hearing?"

"She was probably 9 at the time," Ms. Walsh said.

Ms. Barbuto was also a practical joker. Her former roommate, now Jennifer Tice- McClain, said the two of them would hide behind the curtains when they saw male students heading for class and make catcalls until they turned red and ran.

"The sad thing is that Christine and I were not done being roommates," Ms. Tice- McClain said. "We always joked about how we were going to live together at the same old lady home and put Ex-Lax into the brownies and Saran-Wrap the toilets."

Ms. Barbuto, 32, of Brookline, Mass., was a buyer for the TJX Companies and was on American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 16, 2001.

Christine Barbuto, 32;

TJX Cos. buyer

By Globe Staff, 9/20/2001

Christine Barbuto of Brookline, a buyer for TJX Cos. in Framingham, was killed Sept. 11 on American Airlines Flight 11 in New York City. She was 32.

Born in Peabody, she graduated from Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and received a merchandising degree from the University of Rhode Island.

Miss Barbuto was en route to Los Angeles on a buying trip for TJX, the parent company of TJ MAXX and Marshall's stores.

She leaves her father, John Barbuto of Peabody; and two sisters, Dianne Walsh of North Reading and Jeannine Daly of Burlington.

A memorial Mass will be said tomorrow at 4 p.m. in St. Adelaide's Church in West Peabody.

Editorial Obituary published in THE BOSTON GLOBE on September 20, 2001.