Barbara Estelle Jackson

Barbara Estelle Johnson Jackson was born August 24, 1941 and died on March 3, 2014. She was born at Parris Island, South Carolina to CWO Alvin Emmerson “Guber” and Johnnie Elizabeth “Liz” Bonyne Johnson.

She graduated from Pensacola High School (Florida) in 1959 and attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah for several years. She was a long time member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Prior to marriage she worked as a TV weather announcer, Executive Secretary and was accepted by TransWorld Airway (TWA) as a stewardess, but chose not to pursue that career after actually flying. Barbara was an accomplished pianist playing for church services and youth organizations. She was a leader in Young Women Organizations holding leadership positions at the Ward and Stake levels throughout the United States, Germany and South Korea. She organized and conducted summer camps, wrote and directed road shows, composed and played music for plays and talent shows. She excelled at tole painting and was a voracious reader of fiction and non-fiction authors.

Barbara enjoyed travel especially cruises throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Bahamas and Bermuda. She traveled extensively throughout the Pacific Rim and Asia including South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and mainland China. Her travels also stretched through Europe with Austria, Germany and Switzerland being among her favorites.

Barbara married Claude Kent Jackson in a civil ceremony on January 23, 1963 in Fair Oaks, California. They sealed their marriage for time and all eternity on December 15, 1964 in the Los Angeles Temple. Barbara was a loving and dedicated homemaker and mother. She was a talented and sought after piano teacher wherever her career Army husband was stationed. She worked outside the home in later years as an administrator for Army Material Command in Korea and as Director of Flight Operations in Pennsylvania before moving to Vestavia Hills, Alabama.

Barbara was preceded in death by her parents Alvin and Elizabeth Johnson. She is survived by her loving husband of 51 years Colonel (Retired) Claude Kent Jackson, PhD., her children: Jill Allison Connolly of Marietta, GA, Michael Kent Jackson, Amanda Suzanne Jackson, both of Vestavia Hills, AL and Douglas Blaine Jackson of Morgantown, WVA and her sisters: Betty Ann Montgomery and Pamela Jean Whitten both of Pulaski, VA. Left to treasure memories of her are her grandchildren: Sean Emerson Connolly, Michaela Allison Connolly, Blaine Michael Jackson, Collin Kent Jackson and Ezra Bennett Wood.

The family would like to thank the nurses, aides and staff of the Rittenhouse Senior Living of Hoover for their tender loving care provided Barbara over the past years. Our deepest gratitude also goes to the Life Choice Hospice doctors and nurses who eased her pain and suffering during the later stages of cancer. We send our deepest thanks to all our friends for their prayers, service and sympathy in our loss.

No Services will be held. The family will remember Barbara privately.

Arrangements under the direction of Ridout's Valley Chapel, Homewood, AL.