Hildred Susan Barr

Hildred Susan Barr (nee Moberly) 1938-2025
Hildred Susan Barr, 87, died August 19, 2025.

She was born to Russell Louis Moberly and Hildegarde Mary Francis Louise Diebold Riemer Moberly (nee Riemer) on May 31, 1938, at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1960, with a BA in Geography, she married Bruce Charles Barr on November 3rd, 1961. Before their divorce in 1970, they had four children: Brenda S. Barr-Klabacka (Michael), Brian B. Barr, Belanne Pibal (Mark) and Benjamin R. Barr.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her older brother, Russell F. Moberly.

She is survived by her brothers, Robert Moberly (Lynne), Daniel Moberly (Stella); her four children; 10 grandchildren; and 16 great grandchildren.

A celebration of life will take place from 2 to 5 PM on August 31, 2025, in the Evjue room at the Goodman Center, located at 214 Waubesa Street in Madison, Wisconsin. Flowers for the gathering may be sent to:
Sue Barr Celebration of Life
C/O The Goodman Center/Evjue Room
214 Waubesa Street
Madison, WI 53704

Otherwise, kindly contact family for an address or send them to her home address.

Should you be interested in donating somewhere in her name, she made donations to the Arbor Day Foundation, Silent Cry Foundation, World Children's Fund, Coming Home Foundation, Toys For Tots and North Shore Animal League in the last year

Now, let us tell you about our Mother/Grandmother.

She was full of life and sneaky as all get-out, in the loveliest way. She was willing to do for others in any way she could. She didn't give a hoot for money or if you had it or if you didn't. She just accepted you for who you are. Money wasn't a driving factor in her life except insofar as to always be walking that fine line between when the bill is due and when the money would actually be coming out of her bank account.

As a child, when no one would teach her how to row a boat, she put herself in the boat and pushed it away from the pier as hard as she could. Then someone would have to teach her how to row, so she could get herself back to shore.

As a teen, she had a speedboat that she enjoyed to such effect that one of the neighbors on the lake walked a mile down the road to ask her parents if they could put a muffler on its engine. When she was learning to drive, her mother took her on a country road and told her, "Now bring it up to 80." At Mom's astonished look, her mother told her, "Someday you may need to drive fast and it is better to learn it now than when you need it." She took that approach in our lives as well. Better to learn it and not need it, than the other way around.

She enjoyed water skiing but didn't see the point of wearing a life vest. The first time she water skied after donning a life vest - in response to a well-reasoned explanation of why she should - she went over a ramp, knocked herself unconscious on landing and the vest saved her life. She had a similar experience with seat belts and felt that God was watching over her to have had people in place at the right times, with the right lectures, to keep her safe. She enjoyed horseback riding and didn't stop until her horse at the time, a spirited thoroughbred mix named Skipper, decided to jump a fence and she realized she now had four children to raise and couldn't take that risk anymore.

She was a hard worker and an avid reader. Her parents made all of their children learn how to play at least two musical instruments. Her choices were the baritone - which she played in the Badger Band at the UW, and the piano. She turned down an offer to work for NASA in order to raise her children. She worked for DeYoung Appraisal and Insurance part time for 17 years and worked as a library technician for MATC for 32 years. She did weatherization inspections and managed rental properties for her parents throughout.

In "retirement," she worked part time for Deon's Convenience store/gas station. She was a poll worker for several years in her precinct. She also indulged in swimming, walking, embroidery, gardening, scrapbooking and cardmaking. In her earlier life she painted as well. She took classes in furniture making and upholstering. There were few topics on which she could not be relied upon to give good, solid advice - except geraniums. Although she loved them, they did not thrive under her care.

She got a tattoo at age seventy, having been given a gift certificate for it by one of her children. When asked by another of her children to explain that, since she had strongly opposed her children getting tattoos, she grinned and said: "Well I'm seventy now, I don't have to apply for a job anymore."

She was a courageous woman and would do what she thought was right regardless of the opinions of others. She, at least once, put herself, physically, between an attacker and a child. She worked two and three jobs to support her family. She was soft-spoken and willing to allow others to live as they saw fit - because it is their life and their choices and not hers. That said, she wouldn't back down when she had a say in whether to do something the right way or the wrong way. She also was averse to accepting help of any sort, preferring to live on her own terms, unless she saw it as a kindness to allow someone to help her.

She went on hospice, not because she was ready to die but because it was the only option given to her by her heart condition. Yes, death was coming, but she wasn't going to make it easy. She strongly resisted all pressure to accept a DNR bracelet until one night she was in a crisis and saw the face of the nurse who would have to perform CPR if she needed it, which she did not - at which point she changed her mind to spare that nurse the experience of having to do that. She stayed alive long enough to finish the things she wanted to finish, to pay all her bills - because she didn't want anyone to be out money on her account, to sell her beloved childhood lakefront home to someone who would restore it so that their family could enjoy it as her family had, to assure herself that her children would be relatively "okay" without her and to see her brothers one last time.

She had an excellent sense of humor right to the end of her life and even when not able to speak during those last two days, she managed to convey her jokes with her expressions, nods and smiles in response to the jokes of others.

The family would like to thank the staff at Sun Prairie Senior Living for their compassionate and cheerful care of our mom.

At the end, she died peacefully, only saying a single word and opening her eyes, hearing a reassurance and closing her eyes again. She believed in God and accepted Jesus and had been given a dream of where she was going in the weeks before her death. She is at that party now.

All Faiths Funeral & Cremation Services of Madison is assisting the family. Online condolences can be shared at www.866allfaiths.com.