Barbara Jean Beaston

Barbara was born at home on Dec 28, 1940 at 11:30pm. It was a small farm house with 3 barns on Moose Road in Kannapolis, NC. Her parents worked at the textile plant where Canon towels were made. They raised chickens, growing flowers and vegetables to sell. As an elementary school student she accompanied her father around town selling their items and was the family's bookkeeper. She felt it was important to know, for example, who owed 50 cents for last week's chicken bought on credit. Barbara became quite a businesswoman! As a teenager during the summer she worked at Canon Mills but the very rough work left her hands sore, calloused and sometimes bloody. It made her want a college education that was less physically demanding on her body. In 1963 she graduated High Point College.
That year she married Jeff Johnson and moved across the country to Boulder, CO. Working at the Sheriff's jail while earning a Master's Degree in Education, her first teaching job was at Morey Elementary. Eventually she would accept an opportunity at West High School where she went on to teach for more than 30 years. Along the way she gave birth to her son, David. By high school he was much bigger than the kids on Alameda High School's football team. He played both offensive and defensive interior lineman (basically the whole game), making his mother proud when he intercepted a pass for a 50 yard touchdown. She yelled so loud, "That's my boy!"
After her husband left she and David, she got a side job at a flower shop making floral arrangements. It was there that she noticed the owner's brother, Ron Richman. They married in 1980. Sadly, he died from a massive heart attack in 1982, but there was no support group for a 42 year old widow. That led Barbara and some other young widows to start one of their own. The group of 20 widows (and 2 widowers) had guest speakers, sharing time and once monthly social events. The evening usually started with a nice meal at a restaurant followed by ballroom dancing. Barbara was enjoying her new life UNTIL (you know he had to show up eventually) a 44 year old widower from Missouri showed up. He liked what the group offered but he didn't know how to dance and needed lessons. That is how Lloyd met Barbara. As he says, you can only hold a woman in your arms on a dance floor so long before getting interested in more than dancing! Barbara wasn't so sure after her two previous marriages. But after 3 years they were married on July 1, 1989. 2 parents and 3 kids were blending a family.
When Barbara retired in 1992, she had too much energy and experience to stay home. She became a job placement counselor. She started traveling with her work with DBM and occasionally took her retired husband along. In 2005 she finally retired. Then there was time to travel: Greece, Rome, Ephesus, British Isles, cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean, visits to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. And most importantly visits with the grandchildren in Wisconsin.
In 2017 she had the start of several medical events that would change her life as she knew it. In 3 years she had 3 significant concussions from falls, a stroke from a heart procedure, 3 back surgeries which left her unable to sit up for 4 months, and a pacemaker. The major medical event came during the summer of 2021 with abdominal pain that was progressively getting worse. On July 27 the CT scan results indicated she had cancer in the liver with one spot 3 inches across. The biopsy revealed the only treatment would be chemotherapy, which Barbara declined. The oncologist agreed that was the appropriate course. Then on August 22, just 26 days after diagnosis, she passed into Jesus' arms with her husband of 32 years by her bedside.