Barbara Ann Rhoades

On Saturday, November 4, 2017, Barbara Ann (Conner) Rhoades, 76, crossed the horizon of this world to be with our Lord and her loved ones who journeyed before her. She was born in Connersville, and lived in Evansville, IN.

A devoted sister, mother, and wife, for 62 years she’s been the center of the world for her lifelong love, Jerry Lee Rhoades, Sr. Her strength and love of family was evident from an early age when Barbara was an anchor for her younger sister and two brothers following the untimely passing of their mother. Her innate ability to organize and recall information was essential in her work as an administrative assistant at Mead Johnson, where she compiled data on adverse reactions. As a mother, she fiercely loved and defended her family and children and would stop at nothing to insure their safety. Her love and strength carried them through many difficulties over the years. A talented and creative woman, Barbara earned accolades for her seamstress skills in high school, and continued to sew, crochet, and create needlepoint art and other crafts her entire life. She passed her love of arts and crafts to those around her. Friends and family gathered around her kiln for ceramics projects with their children, and her watercolor and oil paintings decorate her home. She was a kitchen magician, often using knowledge and skill with spices rather than recipes. An avid gardener, she worked alongside her husband and children as they grew vegetables for canning, and landscaped the large terraced yard of the house they built together. She enjoyed weekends at the family cabin, boating, skiing, fishing, watching wildlife, gardening, playing cards, collecting heart-shaped and mushroom-shaped rocks, and hosting the family fish fry. She traveled with friends and family to experience museums, ballet, concerts, floral shows, basket-making, wildlife centers, street festivals, and other distinctive vacations such as touring an oil-well drilling ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Her love and compassion for animals and abandoned creatures led to a lifetime of pets, enriching the joy shared by all who entered her home whether for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

Barbara was preceded in death recently by her son, Jerry Lee Rhoades Jr., who went ahead to prepare Heaven for her arrival; her brother, Joseph Conner, Sr.; her parents, Harry and Edith Conner; and her dear neighbor, M. Lloyd Skelton, for whom Barb and Jerry provided friendship and elder-care in his later years.

She is survived and deeply missed by her husband, Jerry Lee Rhoades, Sr.; daughters, Lisa R. (Keith) Goggin and Leeann R. (Ryan K.) Parker; sister, Mary Langford; brother, Tom (Becky) Conner; and numerous nephews, nieces, cousins, extended family and dear friends.

A Celebration of Life will be held 6:00 PM Thursday, November 9, 2017, at Alexander West Chapel. Friends may visit Thursday from 3:00 PM until service time, and following the service until 8:00 PM, at the funeral home.