Obituary of Leona Gladys Barnes

Leona Gladys Barnes, age 89, of Calder, Idaho, passed away April 7th, 2024. She was born Jan. 5th, 1935, in Billings, MT to Leo Edwin Heinrich Wohler and Gladys Alpha Yost. She attended Billings Senior High class of '52. She then attended two years at Eastern Montana College transferring to Montana State University for her bachelor degree in Nursing. She met and married Charles Dee Barnes in 1959.

Lee continued her education and was the first in her class to achieve a Masters in Nursing, from the University of Washington. Lee continued her education by accepting a post-master program at the University of California San Francisco. Along the way, Lee and Charles added four children to their family. Lee was a nurse in Bloomington and Terre Haute, Indiana. In Lubbock, Texas she taught at the Methodist Hospital School of Nursing. She finally moved to Pullman, Washington where she worked with Infection Control at Pullman Memorial Hospital, retired in 1982, then later moved to Calder, Idaho in 1984.

Lee and Charles lived with their four children in: Washington, Iowa, California, Indiana, Pisa-Italy, and Texas. They traveled all over the world, and she enjoyed gardening, genealogy, stamp collecting and quilting. 

She was preceded in death by her sisters, Roberta Galloway and Darlene Larson, and her husband who died this past Dec 26th, 2023, in Calder, Idaho. She is survived by her four children, Tara Peterson (Steven), Teagen Barnes, Kalee Arbanas (Kevin), and Kyler Barnes (Kerrie), and 13 grandchildren. Her living siblings are; Dorothy Sutherland (Sydney) of Calder, Idaho, Leo Wohler (Diana) of Billings, Montana, David Wohler of Carmel, Indiana, and John Wohler (Lin) of San Antonio, Texas.

A memorial service will be held May 4th, 2024, 11:00 at St Paul Lutheran Church, in St. Maries, Idaho. Ashes of both Leona and Charles will be buried at the Sutherland Cemetery in Calder, Idaho, at a later date.