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Barbara Mae Grimes
On Sept. 5, 2021 at 7:50 a.m., Barbara Mae Grimes went to be with the Lord. At age 84, she had taken part in many worthwhile and long-lasting events, which she treasured whole heartedly. She loved people and would jump at the chance to help someone with health concerns or anything else she could. She could strike up a conversation with complete strangers and make them feel at home right away. She once was bet that she wouldn’t go to a stranger’s campsite and ask for their ketchup. She didn’t even hesitate. While we all looked on, she walked over an introduced herself and began a conversation with a complete stranger and walked back to our campsite with (you guessed it) the ketchup bottle. She also, while on another vacation, sat by a surfer while on a bus in Hawaii and got his whole life story in just a few minutes. She NEVER met a stranger.
She began her journey of educating others when she graduated from K-State University with a degree in home economics. One of her first teaching jobs was in Osborne, Kan. She was also asked to be the FHA sponsor and while it was a load for a first-year teacher, she agreed and loved every minute of it. She was a master seamstress, and was great at planning formal meals, cooking, baking, and was quite successful in aiding her students to become the same when they signed up for her classes. I am sure she was instrumental in teaching many young men and women to sew, cook, host dinners, set up budget plans, be good mothers and fathers, and become profitable adults within society. She would work endlessly at planning worthwhile and meaningful lessons each day. At times she had six to eight different classes to plan for and teach.
After teaching for a few years, she met and married Homer Grimes on June 18, 1961. She then began her career as a farm wife and mother, which she excelled at as well. She helped Homer on the family farm in Alton, Kan., for a few years and later they moved to a farm at Hepler, Kan. She kept very busy cooking, sewing, doing chores, raising kids, attending 4-H meetings and with church activities. It was once said by a farmhand, “If Barb is cooking, I’m working for free.” She truly loved keeping the farm hands well fed, no matter where they were working. You might find her driving grain trucks or tractors, hauling or working cattle, or doing any number of farm chores. She loved animals and always had cats, dogs, and a host of other animals to feed. She was also a super gardener and often did a lot of canning and freezing the produce. After 15-plus years of farming, Barbara ventured back into teaching, and found out A LOT had changed. She taught at Arma High School for her last teaching job in the family and consumer sciences department, often helping with church activities, and socials when time allowed. She was always reading and learning about how to improve her own health or anyone else she met.
She was preceded in death by her parents: Ernest and Berniece (Geier) DeLange, and her husband, Homer Grimes. She is survived by her son: Duane Grimes of Climax Springs, Mo., her daughter and son-in-law; Donetta and Rick Wakefield of Lebanon, Mo., her grandchildren; Cooper Grimes of Grand Junction, Colo., Paige Wakefield of Lebanon, and Zach (Jessica) Wakefield of Ellington, Mo., and her great-granddaughter Everleigh Wakefield of Ellington, her brother; Sheldon DeLange of Girard, Kan., her sisters; Karen Murphy of Belton, Mo., and Debbie Matlock of Springfield, Mo., as well as a host of cousins, nieces, and nephews.
Barbara loved the Lord, and you would often find her reading the Bible, and praying.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m., Friday at the Smith-Carson-Wall Funeral Home in Girard with Pastor Rick Prideaux officiating. Burial will be in the Girard Cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 6 until 8 p.m., Thursday at the funeral home where friends may call after 2 p.m., Thursday.
Memorials are suggested to a family wishes and these may be left at the Smith-Carson-Wall Funeral Home, 518 W St. John, Box 258, Girard, 66743.
Condolences may be sent to www.wallfuneralservices.com