LYLE BARKER

LIBERAL- Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Konantz Warden Funeral Home for Lyle George Barker, 93, Liberal, who died Monday, March 19, 2018. Burial will be in Barton City Cemetery.

Donations are suggested to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, c/o Ruth Coomer, 430 E. 21st St., Pittsburg, Kan. 66762.

Survivors include his wife, Evelyn; sons Guy Barker, Bruce Barker and wife Leann and Gary Barker and wife Gwen; daughter Sherry Christian and husband Mark; six granddaughters, Julie Barker, Kristal Barker, Valerie Barker, Lindsey Ekrem, Kari Meadows and Tracy Rudolph; two grandsons, Brent Barker and Josh Christian; three great-granddaughters and two great-grandsons; a brother, Duane Barker and a sister, Dora “Dodo” Lutz.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Joy and Ruth Barker; brothers, Merle, Max, David and Ted; sisters, Charlotte, Helen “Honey” and Peggy and daughter-in-law, Marilyn.

Mr. Barker was born April 3, 1924, in Jaroso, Colo., to Joy and Ruth Barker. He was the fourth in what would become a family of 10 children. He lived in Jaroso, working on his parents’ potato farm until he attended Campion Academy, where he graduated in 1943. After graduation he attended Union College in Lincoln, Neb. for one semester, where he got his MRS degree, as it was there that he met his beloved wife, “Evie”, Evelyn June Prusia. The two were married on July 2, 1946 in Tekamah, Neb. After their marriage he farmed and she taught school. In 1947 they moved to a farm near Milford, Iowa, where their three sons, Guy, Bruce and Gary, were born. In 1954 they moved to a farm near Liberal, where they settled down for good. It was after they moved to Liberal that their daughter Sherry joined the family.

Mr. Barker earned his living as a farmer, but it’s his non-farming activities that his family remembers the most. He was a devoted Christian and there was not a question about the Bible that could stump him. He could be found in church every Sabbath; in fact, just about the only time he wasn’t wearing his Key overalls was when he was at church. He loved to laugh and was always up for a good joke or prank. His wife was often the target of his pranks, but she never seemed to mind. He was the world’s best grandpa and he loved his six granddaughters and two grandsons and never failed to show it. He took them on trips in his motorhome and to Silver Dollar City, dressed up as Santa and delivered presents from his motorcycle and brought them with him on ice cream runs to Baskin and Robbins on the motorcycle. He loved wheels of any sort – motorcycles, cars, pickups, you name it, if it had wheels, he loved it.

After retirement, he and his wife spent winters in warmer climates, beginning in Florida and later in California. During the winters, they lived in their motorhome and learned new card and domino games that they eagerly shared with the grandkids when they returned to Liberal each spring. When at home, he enjoyed spending time in his basement “bachelor pad”, where he watching his favorite shows like “In the Heat of the Night”, “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Gunsmoke” and drank Mountain Dew. He had a big personality and these memories of him are just the tip of the iceberg, of all the things his family remembers about him.

He was dearly loved and will be deeply missed.