She was born in Harrison County, IN near Corydon on April 4, 1916, the daughter of Minor and Anna (Tranum) Smith. Barbara was raised in Southern Indiana. She was united in marriage in Brook, Indiana to Basil Sheets in 1937. Barbara later negotiated the purchase of a piece of property in Highland from the Erie Railroad Company and she and Basil spent the next 10 years building their house themselves. Having lived through the Great Depression Barbara was very proud of the fact that she never had a mortgage and the only loan she ever had was for $400. Barbara was a homemaker after marriage to Basil, raising their four children. Barbara went to college at age 40. She obtained a Master’s degree “With Highest Distinction” from Valparaiso in education and during her career taught elementary through high school students. After Basil’s death in 1982, Barbara married Charles McCollough on December 28, 1991.
Barbara loved gardening and had an extensive garden that she was able to continue to personally weed until she was in her 90’s. Barbara continued her whole life to have a large number of plants she lovingly cared for, and because of her great skill with flowers graciously brought several plants back from the brink to great health for her granddaughter, which earned her the nickname “Flower Whisperer.” Barbara loved to travel and traveled to many countries and extensively around America. Barbara had a life-long love of reading which she was able to continue throughout her life with the aid of the iPad mini she received as a gift in 2015. She absolutely loved having access to thousands of library books using an application on the iPad. Barbara also had a long-time love of card games which she passed on to her family. Barbara was still teaching others card games at 101 years old, and still winning! She was also a fan of e-mail and using the internet to look up news stories and for research purposes.
Barbara was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Highland since approximately 1948 and considered herself a founding member. Although she lived with her daughter Marjorie in Rhinelander beginning in 2015, Barbara continued her support of her church. Barbara supported many charities and was known to respond to quite a few of the charitable requests she received in the mail.
Barbara will be remembered by many. It is difficult to find the words to accurately describe Barbara concisely. She was one of the kindest most compassionate people we’ve ever known, an excellent listener, always supportive and genuinely concerned about others.
Barbara is dearly missed by her children Dennis (Treva) Sheets of Fairhope, AL, Barbara (Fred) Thompson of Downers Grove, IL, Laurence (Carol) Sheets of Moulton, IA and Marjorie (Ted, deceased) Holom of Rhinelander; former daughter-in-law Claudia Sheets. 17 grandchildren; 8 great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandson. Barbara is further survived by one sister, Eleanor (Tom) Koopmans of LaHarpe, IL. Barbara is also survived by many other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Minor and Anna Smith; husband Basil; second husband Charles; and her siblings Max, Leroy (Sam), Eugene, and John.
The visitation for Barbara will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, December 1, 2017 at Kuiper Funeral Home in Highland. The funeral will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 2, 2017 at First Presbyterian Church of Highland with internment to immediately follow at Calumet Park Cemetery.
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