The FindAGrave
entry for Lena Pearl
Jacobs Barkley has full biographical information, which is copied here due to a category requirement. However, you should consult the link, since FindAGrave information is reader-submitted and is often corrected later. (I've submitted many corrections to FindAGrave entries!) Here is the biography for Lena Barkley:
Lena Pearl entered this life on December 6, 1908 in the Cave Springs community northeast of Sarcoxie, Missouri the first of five children born to the late Edward and Mamie (Chandler) Jacobs. Her first six years of school were spent at Cave Springs and during the summer of 1920 the family moved to Round Prairie where she finished the 7th and 8th grade. She felt fortunate to be able to attend high school in a time when many girls remained at home to assist with chores. Lena Pearl graduated from Sarcoxie in the class of 1927. She began working with her mother at home, cooking, gardening, canning and caring from her younger siblings. She always wanted to be a registered nurse and in 1929 she enrolled in the Freeman Hospital School of Nursing in Joplin, Missouri. While in training she spent most of her time very homesick. Close to graduating, Lena Pearl chose to marry her high school sweetheart, Ned C. Barkley on April 3, 1932. Ned was the son of Cal and Myrtle (Taylor) Barkley. Her marriage disqualified her from completing her nursing degree because in that period of time a married woman could not be a registered nurse. She and Ned were blessed with three children; Benita Ruth, Nedra Ann and a stillborn son, Lowell Allen Barkley. She worked at Juvenile Shoe in Sarcoxie for seven and a half years. In the fall of 1959, she returned to her ‘first love' by enrolling at Franklin Technical School in Joplin in the Freeman Hospital Nursing Program. She obtained her LPN license in October of 1960. She worked one year at Freeman Hospital and then completed a 20-year career with Dr. Jack Royce at the Royce Manor Nursing Home in Sarcoxie. She loved to do hand quilting and made some sixty for herself and as gifts for her family and friends. She was a good cook known especially for her hot light bread, pies and raised doughnuts. She enjoyed vegetable gardening, raising African Violets and had a large doll collection. She was a member of the Fist Methodist Church in Sarcoxie, member of the Sarcoxie B.P.W, charter member of the Round Prairie Extension Club and was a volunteer at the Gene Taylor Museum. She was a 76-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star, serving as Worthy Matron in 1942 and as secretary for 22-years.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 69-years, Ned C. Barkley on June 6, 2001; two infant sisters, Freda and Eva Jacobs; and a brother, Raymond E. Jacobs.
Lena Pearl is survived by two daughters, Benita Ruth Shields and husband, Bill, of Carthage, Missouri and Nedra Ann Bouling and husband, Don, of Ash Grove, Missouri; two grandsons, William Lane Shields and wife, Linda McCargo, of West Branch, Iowa and Alan Carter and wife, Debbie, of Ash Grove, Missouri; two granddaughters, Maureen Comotto and husband, Mike, of Carthage, Missouri and Melissa Coover and husband, Bill, of Skiatook, Oklahoma; four great grandchildren, Molly and Drew Shields, David Comotto and Laura Kirklin; a sister, Helen Lundy of Carthage, Missouri; as well as a host of other family and friends.
Funeral services for Mrs. Lena Pearl Barkley were 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, 2012 in the chapel of the Housh-Goodwin Funeral Home in Sarcoxie, Missouri with Rev. James Lee officiating.
As usual, I have included contextual photos to help locate the headstone, in case there is difficulty with the GPSr satellite reception.