A visitation will be held from 1:00 to 2:00 pm Monday, January 2, 2022 at Mullinax Funeral Home, Butler (660-679-0009).
Graveside services will follow at 2:00 pm Monday in Oak Hill Cemetery, Butler. In lieu of flowers and in honor of Barbara’s care for others, the family recommends memorials that provide caregiving for others to the organization of the donor’s choice. Messages of condolence and memories may be left for the family at www.mullinaxfuneralhome.com.
Born to Glenn and Bessie (Rudy) Richards February 21, 1938 in Salina, Kansas, Barbara grew up on her family’s farm and graduated from Solomon High School, marrying her high school sweetheart February 1, 1957. During their sixty years of marriage, she and Ed lived in New Cambria, Salina, Spring Hill and Overland Park, Kansas, Decatur, Illinois, and retired to Archie, Missouri. Because of her gift of caring for others, Barbara made every place they lived a home, even a slide in camper during a summer work stint for Ed in Cincinnati!
“Homemaker” does not fully encompass who Barbara was, however. If something needed to be done, she was never hesitant to roll up her sleeves and figure out how to accomplish it. She was an incredible seamstress whose projects looked as perfect on the inside as the outside and loved having her hands in the dirt, raising a bountiful garden many years, planting and pruning fruit trees and learning to drive a small tractor and mower to care for their 7-acre farm even after Ed passed away in 2017. She loved entertaining her family, frequently using the “good dishes” when they came to visit. She was quick to give the gift of care for not only her children, but also grandchildren when needed, and ultimately, her husband as his health declined. Barbara often mentioned a tangible awareness of God’s presence in her life and was confident His hand was always on her.
She had a distinctively beautiful whistle than once earned her a whistling solo in a school program when she improvised one the previous year as a child! She loved to play Pitch and never met a cleaning project that Barbara and a bottle of Clorox couldn’t tackle! Fiercely independent, she could be seen standing in the bucket of the tractor cutting limbs, re-arranging heavy furniture, and making independent road trips to doctors’ appointments, family visits, or shopping trips with her faithful 4- legged companion, Lady, well into her 80s. While she loved and drank milk her entire life, she enjoyed a fire-cooked hotdog topped with toasted marshmallows, and would never turn down a bottle of Pepsi and a Hershey bar. She was quick to laugh and had a distinctive “look” God only gives to mothers that she used effectively her whole life.
Barbara was preceded in death by her husband, Edmonde, her brothers Arnold and Tom, and her daughter-in-law, Brenda. She is survived by her three children: Gregory (Denise) Brown of Abilene, Kansas, Russell Brown of McLouth, Kansas, and Michele (Lisa) Peterson of Butler, Missouri, 9 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren, her sister, Linda (Michael) Decker of Pittsburg, KS, her brother and sister-in-law Delos and Judy Brown of New Cambria, KS and sister-in law Donna Richards of Solomon, Kansas.
Born to Glenn and Bessie (Rudy) Richards February 21, 1938 in Salina, Kansas, Barbara grew up on her family’s farm and graduated from Solomon High School, marrying her high school sweetheart February 1, 1957. During their sixty years of marriage, she and Ed lived in New Cambria, Salina, Spring Hill and Overland Park, Kansas, Decatur, Illinois, and retired to Archie, Missouri. Because of her gift of caring for others, Barbara made every place they lived a home, even a slide in camper during a summer work stint for Ed in Cincinnati!
“Homemaker” does not fully encompass who Barbara was, however. If something needed to be done, she was never hesitant to roll up her sleeves and figure out how to accomplish it. She was an incredible seamstress whose projects looked as perfect on the inside as the outside and loved having her hands in the dirt, raising a bountiful garden many years, planting and pruning fruit trees and learning to drive a small tractor and mower to care for their 7-acre farm even after Ed passed away in 2017. She loved entertaining her family, frequently using the “good dishes” when they came to visit. She was quick to give the gift of care for not only her children, but also grandchildren when needed, and ultimately, her husband as his health declined. Barbara often mentioned a tangible awareness of God’s presence in her life and was confident His hand was always on her.
She had a distinctively beautiful whistle than once earned her a whistling solo in a school program when she improvised one the previous year as a child! She loved to play Pitch and never met a cleaning project that Barbara and a bottle of Clorox couldn’t tackle! Fiercely independent, she could be seen standing in the bucket of the tractor cutting limbs, re-arranging heavy furniture, and making independent road trips to doctors’ appointments, family visits, or shopping trips with her faithful 4- legged companion, Lady, well into her 80s. While she loved and drank milk her entire life, she enjoyed a fire-cooked hotdog topped with toasted marshmallows, and would never turn down a bottle of Pepsi and a Hershey bar. She was quick to laugh and had a distinctive “look” God only gives to mothers that she used effectively her whole life.
Barbara was preceded in death by her husband, Edmonde, her brothers Arnold and Tom, and her daughter-in-law, Brenda. She is survived by her three children: Gregory (Denise) Brown of Abilene, Kansas, Russell Brown of McLouth, Kansas, and Michele (Lisa) Peterson of Butler, Missouri, 9 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren, her sister, Linda (Michael) Decker of Pittsburg, KS, her brother and sister-in-law Delos and Judy Brown of New Cambria, KS and sister-in law Donna Richards of Solomon, Kansas.
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