Franklin Twp. woman lives life to fullest
FRANKLIN TWP. – Kay Barchetti lives life to the fullest. Whatever she takes on she does with boundless energy and passion.
Barchetti, who loves poetry and cooking, uses one of her favorite poems, "The House by the Side of the Road" by Sam Walter Foss, to illustrate the way she thinks.
"I would get the little house by the side of the road and then I would begin adding rooms and more rooms and I would be a friend who would be feeding people and soon it wouldn't be just one table, it would be a dining room big enough to feed many people," she said.
One example of Barchetti's way of doing things is when she decided to get chickens. She did not consider a little flock for a few fresh eggs. She did it the Barchetti way. She got 200 chickens and a few ducks, and for 12 years she took care of the chickens daily, gathered the eggs, cleaned them and donated 50 dozen eggs a week to Divine Grace Ministerium Food Bank.
When she had surgeries and was unable to care for the chickens and eggs, volunteers from the food bank came to her home and took care of them. Recently she got rid of the chickens.
Barchetti describes herself as a workaholic.
"I overdo everything I do. It is my nature," she said.
In 2011, she bought a house at the end of a cul de sac in Franklin Township and in typical Barchetti fashion she did a 100% upgrade outer, interior and outbuildings, fenced in 2 of the 6.7 acres and had it landscaped.
With more than ample space to entertain, it is her joy to host parties, large and small. As a member of the Woman's Network, Barchetti recently hosted 20 members to a meal that began with deviled eggs and included chicken, gravy, lots of veggies and ended with vanilla chocolate crème Brûlée. She is doing it again very soon.
"I have been privileged to cook dinners and dessert buffets here at the farm for clients and friends," she said.
Barchetti has been a realtor for 17 years and currently is with Compass Pittsburgh Real Estate.
"I really enjoy it," she said. "I love to sell."
Recently, Barchetti's 9-year-old granddaughter, Apinya, came to live with her and is enrolled in Riverside Elementary School. As the mother of two sons who live in Texas, Barchetti said that God has granted her a chance to take care of a little girl, at least for the school year.
"Apinya is simply a little slice of heaven; I am more alive," she said.
With her love for selling, Barchetti succeeded as a child selling vegetables from her wagon to being Pittsburgh's hottest upscale retailer in the 1990s, profiled in many financial publications, and receiving awards and honors for her efforts to promote downtown Pittsburgh business district and service to the Pittsburgh community.
The K. Barchetti shops were New York style in Pittsburgh. A newspaper article described her as "In her heyday, Katherine Barchetti was Pittsburgh's retail success story, a platinum blond grandmother who outsold, outpriced and out dazzled the competition."
Barchetti's shops closed in mid-2000.
Her husband, Regis Herbst of Pittsburgh, who died in 1991, was an engineer, inventor and entrepreneur.
Barchetti was born in Alabama, but the family left when she was an infant and she has never gone back.
"I come from a dysfunctional family of nine children. There was never enough food and sometimes no shoes to go to school," she said.
It was a childhood of contrasts. Her great-grandfather Thomas Mueller, his brothers and their families immigrated from France to New York, where they had tobacco stores. According to a newspaper article, Thomas Mueller, a millionaire, bought a castle on the Cheat River in Nilan, Pa. Barchetti's father moved the family there when she was in the fifth grade.
"My grandmothers always had broth simmering on the stove. They knew about every plant that grows. They grew everything and they fed everyone who came and many did," she said.
When Barchetti was in the fifth grade, a bigger boy beat up her little brother so she beat up the bully. Her teacher, Priscilla Lockard, took her to the coat room for punishment. She told Barchetti that she shouldn't do that; she should act like a lady.
"I told her I didn’t have time to be a lady. She became my mentor. Every week she had me to her house for dinner and she shared her love of poetry and had me memorizing poems. She impacted my life immeasurably. I can never thank her enough," Barchetti said.
When Barchetti became successful she took Lockard on a European tour that included an audience with the Pope.
"My early childhood summers at the castle with my grandmothers and then the influence of Priscilla Lockard throughout my school years taught me cooking, selling, farming, a love for poetry, and more," she said.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Franklin Twp. woman lives her life to the fullest
