Editing Tracy Barnes (section)

==Early Life and Education==
Charles Tracy Barnes was born on August 2, 1911, in Manhasset, Long Island, New York, to a prominent and wealthy family. His father, Courtlandt Dixon Barnes, was a successful banker, and his mother, Katherine Barney, was the daughter of Charles Tracy Barney, president of the Knickerbocker Trust Company. The Barnes family’s social standing placed Tracy among America’s elite, with connections to influential figures like the Roosevelts. He grew up in a privileged environment, attending elite institutions that shaped his patrician demeanor and worldview.

Barnes excelled academically, graduating from Groton School in 1929, a prestigious preparatory school known for producing political and military leaders. At Groton, he was a classmate of Joseph Alsop, a future influential journalist, forging lifelong connections within the establishment. He then attended Yale University, earning a bachelor’s degree in history in 1933. At Yale, Barnes was a member of the Scroll and Key senior society, a rival to Skull and Bones, reinforcing his ties to the Ivy League elite. He proceeded to Harvard Law School, graduating in 1937 with a law degree, and was admitted to the New York Bar Association in 1938, beginning a brief legal career.