Rosemary Cecile Barker

Barker, Rosemary Cecile
passed from this life on November 24, 2015. She was born on September 12, 1927, the third child of Lyle M. Barker and Isabel O'Neill Barker. Rosemary grew up in copper mining towns in Arizona where her father was a mining executive. She was born in Clarkdale where the family lived until 1937, then moved to Ajo, where she completed primary school and graduated in 1945 from Ajo High School. Her parents moved on to Clifton and Morenci when Rosemary left for college at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She was a member of the Tri Delta sorority and received her bachelor's degree in Education in 1950. After graduation, Rosemary taught first and occasionally second grade for almost forty years in Monterey, Coalinga, and Santa Rosa, California, as well as El Paso, Texas, but she spent the majority of her career in the Rosemead School District in Southern California. She loved her vocation and was loved in turn by her many young students. Rosemary retired in 1988 but continued substitute teaching until she returned to Clarkdale in 1992. She bought a charming Southwest style home perched on the shoulders of the Mingus Mountains and had a breathtaking view from her front porch across the Verde Valley to the striking red rocks of Sedona. In 2014, she moved to Villa Siena in Mountain View, California, to be with her family, but always missed the grand vistas, friendly folk, and slower-paced life of Arizona. Rosemary had three great passions: her faith, music, and travel. She was a devout Roman Catholic all her life and an active member of the St. Therese parish in Alhambra, California, and the Immaculate Conception Parish in Cottonwood, Arizona. She taught catechism, sang in the church choir, and played the piano and the organ. Rosemary loved music, and brought her guitar along to enliven many a family gathering with American and Irish folk songs and songs of the Old West. She had a beautiful voice and even recorded an album of music from the 1960s. Rosemary also made the best of her summer vacations and with family or friends visited such places as Mexico, Ireland, Italy, Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Croatia, and the Holy Land. Rosemary is survived by her sister, Betsy Doyle, her brother and sister-in-law, Art Barker and Ruth Allen Barker, her nieces, Peggy Barker, Kathy Barker Hayes (Ken Hayes), Mary Doyle (David Greenwood), and Anne Doyle-Shultz (Al Shultz), her nephews Neill Barker (Pam Moe Barker), William Doyle, and John Doyle, all of Northern California, and eleven grand nieces and nephews. Rosemary died surrounded by family after a long struggle with Parkinson's and lung disease. A funeral mass was held on December 1, 2015, at Villa Siena, and Rosemary was laid to rest alongside her parents on December 3, 2015, at Santa Rosa Memorial Park. A mass in celebration of her life will be held at Immaculate Conception Church at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, January 22, 2016.