Co-founder of Nevada’s Easter Seals division dies at 73
Barbara Sue Bernabei, a Las Vegas mental health care advocate and co-founder of Nevada’s Easter Seals division, died June 2 at age 73.
A 53-year resident of the valley, Bernabei was instrumental in bringing mental health resources to Southern Nevada in the 1970s and 1980s, her family said.
Bernabei worked at several historic Las Vegas restaurants and casinos, including Foxy’s Deli, the Stardust, Castaways and the Riviera.
She met her husband, Joseph Bernabei, while working as a cocktail waitress at Castaways.
“I was a part owner at the Castaways and I hired her, and we fell in love,” Joseph Bernabei said Saturday.
Bernabei and her husband had four children, two of whom, John, 43 and Sybrina, 37, are still living.
Bernabei was a co-founder of the Southern Nevada Association for the Handicapped, now known as the Easter Seals. She made frequent trips to Carson City and Washington, D.C., lobbying for summer school opportunities and benefits for children with disabilities, said her husband.
“She was a very strong advocate for the mentally disabled,” Joseph Bernabei said. “She was a very good woman.”
A poster child for “accidental” activism, Barbara Bernabei became passionate about mental health when two of her sons were born with mental illnesses, said her daughter, Sybrina Bernabei.
Her work was revolutionary to Southern Nevada, where mental health resources were few and far between, her daughter said.
“Back in the ’70s and ’80s, you didn’t have resources for kids with special needs,” Sybrina Bernabei said. “She helped empower both moms and their children.”
“This was before people even knew what autism was,” she added.
Barbara Bernabei is survived by her husband; son John; daughter Sybrina; daughter-in-law Christina; and two grandchildren.
Her memorial service will be private, her family said, who asked that all donations be made made to Easter Seals.
Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.
