Mary Jane Barnes

Mary Jane Barnes (nee: McBride), long time Shasta County resident passed away quietly on June 8 in Napa. Born August 23, 1939, in Oklahoma to Ruby and Ollie McBride, Mary was a country girl through and through and like her grandmother, mother, sister, and daughters “a force to be reckoned with.” She learned to ride horses early on. She ranched, raised cattle, camped, fished, and always enjoyed rodeos and ”them” Cowboys. She fell in love with one, “Chub” Barnes, after meeting him at The Ranch Room in Cottonwood. They were married for 30 years before his death in 2010. Mary affectionately described Chub as “He was the good one”.

Her family left Oklahoma, where blonde-haired Mary and brother George could easily hide in the cotton fields without detection, for California to escape the last years of the Dust Bowl. She fondly recalled the train ride West when as a small child she first saw the country from back-facing seats. They settled in Shingletown after stops in Southern Oregon and Canby, Ca.

Mary was steel-willed but sweet, proud but silly, stubborn yet kind, hardworking, and extraordinarily giving. She began work selling newspaper subscriptions as a teen for which she won a new bike and got her picture in the paper. After graduation from Anderson High, she worked at a dry cleaner, later was a shipping manager at Dickers, and finally spent 20 years keeping the books for Blueberry Twist and its sister restaurants. For many of those years, she worked two jobs simultaneously while raising her children.

She was a wonderful mother and sister, a loving, dedicated wife, and a proud grandmother and great-grandmother. She enjoyed Gummy Bears, vanilla ice cream, Chinese food, and french fries, even cold ones. She liked game shows and westerns, especially Wheel of Fortune, Gunsmoke, and Wagon Train. She played nickel slots and occasionally bet the horses; she nearly always won. She even played on a softball team coached by Chub, humorously coined “The Bad News Bears”

In her younger years, she was an active bowler making dear friends and traveling to tournaments all over the state and to Nevada. Also for many years, she was an active member and secretary of the Women of Moose.

Mary was predeceased by her husband Harold “Chub” Barnes, parents Ruby and Ollie McBride, son Greg, daughter Sandra, and granddaughter Kristina. She will be missed by her sister Lucille, daughter Lorna (Burt), stepson Todd (Gail), grandchildren David, Lindsay, April, Adrien, Ashlee, and Landon, 14 great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.chapeloftheflowers.net for the Barnes family.