Barbara Hartness Clark

Barbara Jean Hartness Clark has gone to be with her Lord and Savior. She was 82 when she passed on January 2nd of 2017. With her tenacious spirit and strong will there is little doubt that the legacy she leaves behind, as exemplified in her family, through several generations, will be an enduring one. She was born on February 26th of 1934 in Murphysboro, IL to Jim and Adele Hartness. Her only sibling, Don Hartness, has preceded her to God's Reward.

She married Naval Academy graduate Richard Clark on June 16th of 1956 and they lived in Newport, RI before the Navy Life took them around the world. They lived in many places and each of them became a home because Barbara never lost sight of what was most important. Home is where your family is. She was the mother of five children, the first being born in 1957 and the last in 1970. Her world revolved around her family and nothing else gave her more joy and happiness than having her family around her.

Her fondest memories were always centered on her family. Home is where your family is. Her husband passed in 2008, but she never wavered in her devotion to family. In honoring his memory, and as the Matriarch, she continued traditions and customs that had helped hold her family together for so many years. It is a testament to her character and the life she led that all of her children and grandchildren were so devoted to her and sought out her counsel and wisdom even though their lives had taken them to faraway places. Home is where your family is. She had many great friends through the many stages of her life. Too numerous for recalling them all by name. To her, true friends were an extension of her sense of family as well. She loved them all, those already gone and those she leaves behind.

Playing bridge, scrabble, and chicken foot with friends and family was part of her great joy. Her faith in God, as a devoted member of the Catholic Church, was extremely important to her and guided her in life. She loved flowers, especially pink and yellow roses. She loved the ocean and being near the shore. She loved entertaining guests and cooking for others, both friends and family. But mostly, she loved her family and being their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Barbara is survived by her five children, Catherine, Melinda, James, Steven, and Christian; as well as grandchildren Jennifer, Christina, Laura, Cierra, Hannah, Emily, Ryan, Tyler, William, Liam, Nolan and great-grandchildren Paxton and Zoe Barbara (named after her and just recently born in the days prior to her passing). She loved them all and loved being their 'Buppy'. But her legacy of family love would be incomplete without mentioning her love and devotion to her adopted grandchildren Jeremy, Jill, and Colby, and great-grandchildren Clayton, Charity, Mataya, Patience, Sidney, Brie, and Colby, Jr.

She was a woman of great integrity, with a compassionate and giving heart, a charitable soul, a profound moral compass, and was a devoted woman of God in her Catholic Faith. Family was everything to her, and that is deeply ingrained in those she leaves behind. She was very much loved by her family. She will be greatly missed. We Love You Mom.