Barbara Kendrick

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Barbara Jean Kendrick, 88, departed for her heavenly home Friday, March 17, 2023, surrounded by her loving family.

Born Barbara Jean McCrory Nov. 17, 1934, she grew up in Portageville, Missouri. She was the daughter of Allie Mae Green (1916-2010) and Wilton T. McCrory (1911-1958) and was the eldest of four children.

In 1952, she graduated from Gideon (Missouri) High School and worked as a telephone operator in Cape Girardeau. She also attended Southeast Missouri State College. While living there, she found her true love, Jerry Kendrick, and they married in Cape Girardeau on Sept. 13, 1959. They would remain together for 61 years.

Barbara embraced her life as a wife and mother, giving birth to Michael, then Pamela. She volunteered frequently for her children's school programs and activities. Her Christian faith was vitally important and the cornerstone of her life, and she lived it out through her service at church and in her community. In her later years she returned to Cape Girardeau to rejoin her extended family and lived most recently in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Barbara is survived by her children Michael (Andrea) Kendrick of Wheaton, Illinois, and Pamela (Jim) Biermann of Fayetteville, North Carolina; two sisters, Gladys Inmon of Bentonville, Arkansas, and Wandena Dean of Chickasaw, Alabama; a brother, W.T. McCrory of St. Louis; four grandchildren, Anna (Scott) Scheidt, Alex Biermann, Hope (C.J.) Neumaier and Kelly Roascio; and three great-grandchildren, Ruby, Nico and Della.

A memorial service for Barbara will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at La Croix Church in Cape Girardeau.