Barbara Youngblood Carr

Barbara died August 3, 2018 in Austin, Texas, age 79. Barbara Ann Youngblood was born in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Houston in 1938, the first of three children born to Tommie Ancie and Alma Grace Day Youngblood. In her childhood years the family lived first at Tomball, then Singleton, and her lifelong love of music began with trips to Magnolia for piano lessons. During her teenage years the family lived in Bowie, Texas and she was a 1957 graduate of Bowie High School. At the graduation ceremony she was presented the school’s first ever Poet Laureate Medal, and she always attributed the development of her writing talent to English teacher, Myrtle Early Davis. She was a Bowie Lions Club Sweetheart, when playing for their meetings, and also was pianist at the Baptist Church.

She was a Civil Service employee at Sheppard Air Force Base when she married Milton Carr in Wichita Falls in 1959; and in the 29 years following was well-travelled as an Army Wife. Afterwards, depending on the company, she either boasted or complained about, having 17 times had to move her household, which had gradually grown in stuff and population as their three children had been born along the way. Barbara and Milton made their retirement move in 1988, choosing to return to Austin, best of all the places they had lived.

In Austin, Barbara joined the Lone Star Chorus, ladies singing group; and played piano, regularly at Bergstrom AFB, and occasionally at a few of the hotels and restaurants around town. She began writing in a big way, eventually authoring more than a dozen books (most of which she edited and some of which she also published), prose and poetry, mostly celebrating her Native American Cherokee heritage and about growing up in Texas and the Southwest, but also some humor and her own special cook book. Supportive of her husband’s veterans group, she was an active Auxiliary in the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and was also a member of the Retired Officers Wives Club. But, poetry was always her greatest passion, and upon finding a vibrant poetry community in Austin, she considered it too somber in tone, and set out to lighten things up. Her red hair and poetic sense of humor in her readings were enjoyed and can now be remembered by many. On the serious side, she served on the board of the Austin International Poetry Festival for 20 years.

Survived by husband, Milton, their children, all in Texas; Curtis of Bellville, Sean of Waco, and Kathleen and her spouse Martha Catano of Wichita Falls; their five grandchildren who knew her as the best cook in the world, and seven great-grandchildren who saw her as a source of endless entertainment; also, her brother, David Youngblood of Houston.

She still had songs to sing and poems to write.

Visitation will be on Thursday, August 9th at 6:00-8:00 p.m. The service is Friday, August 10, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. at Cook-Walden Chapel of the Hills Funeral Home, 9700 Anderson Mill Road, Austin, Texas. A private graveside service is at Willow Spring Cemetery in Willow Park, Texas at a later date.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.cookwaldenchapelofthehills.com for the Carr family.