For residents in Iowa, first-in-the-nation primary season brings a stream of presidential hopefuls, state politicians and noteworthy people to towns large and small who show up at small cafes, libraries and homes to campaign. Barbara always attended these campaign meetings. In addition, over the years she personally met a variety of notables such as Elvis Presley, Paul Simon, Harry and Bess Truman, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack and Michelle Obama, Joe Biden (who she personally introduced at a cafe gathering) and Jimmy Carter, just to name a few. Clearly it pays to live in Iowa where the first-in-the-nation primaries made it possible for residents to engage in conversations with the movers and shakers of the world.

Barbara grew up first on two rental farms and then at age five they moved to a farm seven miles from Mound City, Missouri. In those days the farming was done with horses, and her home had no electricity or indoor plumbing until she was ten or twelve. The farm and home were across the black-topped road from the Bellevue Consolidated School, a two-story, stately brick building with grades one through twelve. For several years they boarded two teachers in their home. Her family lived a quarter of a mile from her maternal grandparents and uncle and aunt. She often walked to their house where she and her grandmother spent many hours talking.

She grew up helping in the garden, canning with her mother, tending the fruit trees, taking care of chickens, pigs, cows and horses and helping with laundry. She was the official lawn keeper. But it was not all work. She remembers riding the horses daily and playing house in the pines. The fun social event of the week was joining friends in town on Saturday nights for the “picture show” and walking the streets while her parents shopped and visited.

A big part of her family’s life was at the country Pleasant View Presbyterian Church where her mother was organist and floral arranger. She had an older brother, Bob, and they both were active in 4-H. Barbara even had a couple of steers which she raised and showed. She gravitated mainly to sewing and foods and won many ribbons.

Barbara’s mother was college educated and taught school for a while and her father, who moved to Missouri from New York State when he was nineteen, was very well self-educated, deliberative and successful in farming. When she graduated from high school in 1951 in a graduating class of three other girls, there was no question that she would go on to college. She chose Park College, a Presbyterian liberal arts college just outside of Kansas City, Missouri. The students had the opportunity of being ushers at events at the Municipal Auditorium. It was here that she got to usher the Trumans to their seats at the opera. After two years, she transferred to Northwest Missouri State College in Maryville, Missouri, which offered a more inclusive Vocational Home Economics program leading to more job opportunities. She graduated in 1956 with a degree in education and a major in home economics and easily got a job, along with two college girlfriends, ninety miles from home in Oakland, Iowa. Her salary was $3800. Her mother thought Oakland was much too far away for a single girl to drive alone but it worked out fine. Being close to Omaha and having her brother’s car while he was in the military meant they had wheels to have good times in the city. She still keeps in touch with those girlfriends sixty-five years later.

One memorable event occurred after the three of them attended a concert of Bill Haley and the Comets (“Rock Around the Clock”) who were opened by The Platters, a popular ‘doo-wop’ quartet who sang in close harmony and had the hit song “Only You.” Somehow, they got backstage, met the bands and had their photos taken with the musicians. They returned to school excited about their experience and showing their photos, even to the superintendent. The superintendent was not pleased! He shamed his three young teachers, of whom he was so proud, saying that they had lowered themselves by cuddling up with these Black boys. Barbara remembers that as one of her first experiences with racism. She still loves to hear the music of the 50s and 60s.

All three decided to move on and Barbara went to Bedford, Iowa to teach high school homemaking. As she pulled up to the door to unload her teaching supplies, three male teachers appeared and offered to help her. Gene Hannon was one of them and he asked her out that weekend. Thus began their twenty-three-year relationship. After two years of dating, she could tell that Gene was getting serious, but she was not ready to marry and settle down in small town Iowa. She wanted to see the world and have adventures. So, she got a homemaking job in Clear Lake, Iowa and took a six-week, thirteen-country grand tour of Europe with a small group of teachers and an elderly gentleman.

Here is where Barbara tells of a famous person encounter. Their tour took them on some nighttime adventures in Paris which included several nightclubs. At intermission in the Lido’s lounge, their elderly traveling companion spotted Elvis Presley in his military outfit with another soldier. He walked right up to him, shook his hand and introduced himself as a fellow Nashville native. “We girls just followed him, forming a circle with Elvis and his buddy. I just happened to be standing next to Elvis. As we chatted with him for several minutes, Elvis reached down and held my hand the whole time. In 1959, this was exciting!!”

Teaching in Clear Lake for a couple of years and Gene driving the four hours after ball practice for frequent weekends convinced them both that it was time. They were married July 29, 1961, in her home country church, Pleasant View. They bought a house and settled in Bedford to teach and raise a family.

They had two children, John and Maria. Barbara was a stay-at-home mother until both were in school. She then worked as an assistant librarian a couple of years until the superintendent convinced her to fill the high school Library Media position which necessitated her going back to school in summers and Saturdays to get certified in library science. She eventually was head librarian for the high school, middle school and elementary, made possible only by good assistants in both media centers. With her homemaking and school library careers, she taught 39 years, retiring in 1999.

Vacations were few and far between because of Gene’s coaching schedules. It won’t surprise many who know Barbara that she was very involved in countless ways volunteering to improve the lives of Bedford residents:

…singing in the Presbyterian church choir, teaching Sunday School for 25 years, participating in book and study groups, being active in the Women’s Association and more;
…being Program Coordinator for their church sponsored community service called Bridge to Care, which paired residents with volunteers who provided services such as transportation to medical appointments locally and to Omaha and Des Moines plus all manner of home support;
…actively working with the Taylor County Democratic Women, which raised money for candidates, like hosting an annual homemade ice cream booth at the county fair;
…joining (in 1958) an international organization, P.E.O., Philanthropic Education Organization, whose purpose is providing higher education opportunities for female students worldwide.
…volunteering extensively with the Bedford Area Development Center, whose purpose was to revitalize the historic downtown through economic development and preservation;
…being the lead organizer of the successful rehabilitation of the historic Conoco gas station into a welcome center and BADC office. Sadly, since her leaving Bedford, this has been abandoned because of lack of addressing mold and water problems.

Barbara and Gene were integral members of the Bedford community and they loved living there. She has stories of living the life of a coach’s wife, mothering and teaching. Gene died in 1984 when the children were in high school. Maria now lives in Denver and is the Human Resources Director of the Colorado Health Foundation. John, whose career with the federal Bureau of Reclamation rehabilitating rivers for successful spawning of salmon, is recently retired, and does Ironman Triathlons. He lives in Sacramento, California. Barbara has four grandchildren, two in Denver and two in California.

Barbara was not one to take road trips, leisure tours or cruises. Her preference has been taking work and mission trips through her church; fourteen of them to be exact! From Bedford to Central America (2), work trips to New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Laura (3) where she learned to tile, finish drywall, install insulation and shingle roofs; well, mostly climbing and handing shingles to the men. They wouldn’t let the women use the power guns; Habitat for Humanity work efforts (5); and with Montview groups to Uganda and Zimbabwe, (1) with Borderlinks and (1) to Ipoderac Orphanage in Mexico. Rather than work trips which could often take jobs away from local residents, she values mission trips which emphasize developing relationships, increasing understanding of the culture and with NGOs that are assisting people to become self-supporting.

It was with great sadness but with anticipation that she decided to leave Bedford in 2010 and move to Denver to be close to her daughter’s family. During previous visits to Denver, she had visited Montview Church and was impressed with the wealth of educational, worship and service opportunities. She immediately became involved with Social Justice, Earth Care and Metro Caring. Five years of teaching ESL (English as Second Language) to stay at home refugee mothers expanded her appreciation of other cultures.

Barbara feels that modeling her life by examples set by her family, inspiration from pastors and friends, being active in social issues, spiritual practices and strong bonds with neighbors and community have enriched her life. Her intimacy with nature through daily walks and eating a healthy diet keeps her centered and at peace amid world turmoil.

She shared this quote by Miriam Adeney which expresses how she feels about living in Denver and having lived in Bedford, Iowa and the farming community near Mound City, Missouri: “You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”

– Submitted by Brooke Durland and Barbara Hannon