Theresa “Terri” Barry - Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Theresa Barry and Labrys Books, Virginia’s First Feminist Bookstore

Theresa “Terri” Barry was born in Washington, D.C. She grew up in southern Maryland, in a large Catholic family with six brothers; and she was educated in Catholic schools. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA in 1982 with a degree in dance and choreography.

Theresa Barry moved to Washington, D.C., and soon began a more than 30-year career in journalism. She had worked for the Richmond Times Dispatch from 1972 to 1976. When she was in Washington, D.C., she joined USA Today before it first published on September 15, 1982. From there, she went to The New York Times from 1995 to 1999, and then, Bloomberg News from 1999 to 2008. She eventually to the Bureau of National Affairs, which was purchased by Bloomberg LP, where she worked as an editor until retiring in 2018.

Theresa Barry came out as a lesbian in 1976 in Michigan. She met her partner, Joan Mayfield, months later when she returned to Richmond, Virginia. From 1977 to approximately 1980, she and Joan opened and ran Labrys Books in the living room of their Richmond home. They chose the name Labrys after the double-headed, ritual axe found in ancient Minoan depictions of the Mother Goddess. The bookstore was run with the support of the Richmond Lesbian Feminists, an organization that still exists today. Both Theresa and Joan helped put out the organization’s newsletter every month.

Theresa Barry has been a writer since her teens. In 1981, she published some of her poetry in Sinister Wisdom. She now writes fiction.

Rose Norman, “ ‘ You had to be passionate and crazy’: Feminist Booksellers in the South,” Sinister Wisdom 116, (Spring 2020): 14-38