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| Irène Litz-Barré |
By Nancy Martin
Irène Litz-Barré was born in Belgium in 1928 and grew up in the French border town of Roisin. Her father was the local Gendarmerie Commandant, which made for interesting times during her teenage years (otherwise known as WWII). By necessity, she learned German.
She married a French Engineer, whose work took them all around Europe. Eventually, they moved to Switzerland where he worked for an American company. Irene began picking up new languages, notably Swiss-Deutsch and American. Sadly Ray was killed in a SwissAir plane crash. Remaining in Switzerland, she met and married Tom - an American teaching French at a nearby international school. Irene joined the staff of his school specializing in helping new students from all over the world - (she picked up fragments of another dozen languages).
Eventually, Irene followed her son to the U.S., where she honed her English skills by writing her first book - Following the Lines (World War II as Experienced by a Belgian Girl). That book came out around her 89th birthday. She has since written an international cookbook, two children’s stories, along with two story collections.
