Barbara Leamey Dahlem

Barbara Ann Leamey Dahlem, 84, passed away peacefully surrounded by her devoted and loving family on Thursday, December 1, 2022. She was born in Louisville, KY on July 26, 1938 to Frances Day Leamey and Robert Emmett Leamey. She is preceded in death by her beloved husband, Francis Edward (Ed) Dahlem, infant daughter, Julie Anne Dahlem, and parents.
She graduated from Presentation Academy in 1956 and Nazareth College in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics. She attended St. Louis Bertrand and Holy Rosary Academy in her elementary school years.
In 1960, Barbara married Ed Dahlem, and they began their nearly 60 years of love and trust together. At the young age of 22, she bravely traveled with Ed to California where he received his Naval Commission and joined the U.S. Pacific Fleet. She quickly made friends with the other navy wives who loved and supported each other. Her first daughter was born in Long Beach, CA, with Ed by her side after being retrieved from the USS Bayfield by the Red Cross. By the age of 25, she had traveled across country to Newport, RI where her two sons were born. As a family, they returned to Louisville in 1964.
She was the only child in a family with three aunts who adored her, Louise Day, Margaret Leamey, and Mary Agnes Leamey. The love of family and friends were most important to her. She had a delightful sense of humor and uncanny memory that she always used to make people feel truly loved and deeply connected to one another. Her years at Presentation changed the direction of her life where she played on the basketball team and formed deep and lasting friendships with a group of amazingly talented women known as "The Pres Girls". In college, she was student council president and helped form a quartet who sang in the NUB Variety Show.
She always focused on loving and supporting the needs of others above herself. In her volunteer work with the PTSA at Jeffersontown and Central High Schools, she was recognized by the Thoroughbred Chorus as the Jeffersontown Citizen of the Year receiving the Award of Harmony for her untiring contributions to the PTSA, formation of the soccer program, and her efforts to build relations between schools during the initial years of court-ordered busing in Louisville. She emotionally and financially supported hundreds of young people through her work at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Eastern High School Student Services, and as a board member of Dyslexia Solutions.
Left to cherish her memory are her devoted children Cindy (Brad) Baumert, Dr. Robert (Cynthia) Dahlem, DVM., and Michael (Bernadette) Dahlem; her grandchildren Dean (Paula) Baumert, Amy Baumert (Brandt Cloyd), Austin (Samantha) Dahlem, Taylor (Heather) Dahlem, Shelby Dahlem (Kyle Baldwin), and Natalie Dahlem. She is also survived by her brother-in-law, Valentine "Val" Dahlem III of Dayton, OH, and his children Greg, Andy, Valerie, Jennifer and their families.
Visitation for Barbara Leamey Dahlem will be from 3 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, December 6th at Ratterman Brothers Funeral Home, 12900 Shelbyville Road, Louisville, KY. Funeral service will be held at 10 a.m., Wednesday, December 7th, at Epiphany Catholic Church, 914 Old Harrods Creek Rd, Louisville, KY. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery.
Expressions of sympathy may be made in the form of donations to the Barbara Leamey Dahlem Scholarship at Presentation Academy, 861 S. Fourth Street, Louisville, KY 40203.