Velma Lorraine Barkley

Lorraine Barkley

Lorraine Barkley, 96, formerly of Lucerne, MO, passed away at Brookdale Senior Care Solutions in Overland Park, KS, on Thursday, May 7, 2015.

Velma Lorraine Barkley was born December 5, 1918, to Benjamin Henry Yardley and Delka Marie Pierson Yardley. When she was two months old, her father Henry died during the influenza epidemic. When she was almost two, her mother married Charley Camp, who became her adoring father. Lorraine described him as an “angel.”

Lorraine married Curtis Barkley at the home of Reverend Basil Sinclair in Pollock, MO, on August 26, 1938. John and Neva Lemon stood up with them and were married at the same time. Then they all left together for a weekend honeymoon at the Iowa State Fair. Lorraine and Curtis were married just six months short of sixty years. During the first years of their marriage they lived in a house near Curtis’s parents, a house that Curtis built. In 1946 they moved to the farm on the Putnam/Sullivan County line where they resided for more than 50 years and where Lorraine continued to live for several years after Curtis’s death February 26, 1998. Since 2007 Lorraine lived in Overland Park, KS, near her son Bill and his family. Bill was her unflagging advocate and caretaker during the time she resided in Overland Park, moving through the stages of apartment, assisted living, and care center. The farm remains in the family as a retreat.

Lorraine began teaching in a rural school when she was sixteen after attending a summer term at Kirksville Normal School. It was the Depression and her parents did not have enough money to send her to college, but her stepfather cosigned a loan for her to attend. She taught for a total of six years in rural schools, including the Holiday and the Wolf Schools. She attended enough summer sessions to become a junior in college.

Lorraine enjoyed many hobbies including gardening, reading, scrapbooking, crocheting, and quilting. In her later years she developed a love and skill for golf. For a number of years she enjoyed being a vigorous leader of the Democratic Party in Putnam County. Lorraine loved to travel. She and Curtis visited many states including Alaska and Hawaii. They also visited Canada, Mexico, the British Isles, and continental Europe. They spent sixteen winters in Brownsville, Texas, where they enjoyed the friendship of travellers from their home area and others they met while there.

Lorraine was a woman of independent spirit who was generous to her children and grandchildren. She is survived by son William Curtis “Bill” and wife Rachel and their grown children John, Rose Lorraine, and Stuart and daughter Bonnie Niebruegge and husband John of Kirksville, MO, and their grown children Jason and Andrew Merryman, Maria Niebruegge Long, and JoAnn Niebruegge and great granddaughters Lauren Taylor Merryman, daughter of Jason Merryman, and Ainsley and Avalyn Long.

Funeral services for Lorraine Barkley will be at Playle and Jones Family Funeral Home in Unionville, MO, at 11:30 am on Wednesday, May 13, 2015, with visitation one hour prior to the service. Interment will be at the Plainview Cemetery southwest of Unionville.

In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorials to Plainview Cemetery or Brookdale Hospice and these may be entrusted with Playle and Jones Family Funeral Home, 709 S. 27th St., Unionville, MO 63565.