Barbara Francesca Anctil

Barbara Francesca Krommer received the nickname “Boots,” from her father, based on his memory of a cartoon character Tony Boots. She grew up on Princeton Avenue in Fresno California in the parish of St. Theresa, with her parents, Mary and Oscar, and her sisters Patty, Carol (“Short Pants”), and Judy (“Partner”). Her childhood was populated with numerous aunts - the Basque aunts she referred to as her Tias - along with uncles, and cousins.

Early on, Barbara developed an abiding love of literature and music, and was known for quick action. When her older sister, Patty, overspent her turn on their shared tricycle, Barbara’s response was as decisive as her teeth were sharp, and Patty’s backside, tender. When younger sister Judy, daydreaming in the back seat of their moving 1935 Dodge sedan, inadvertently opened the door, Barbara instantly reacted from the front seat blocking the opening with her arm to prevent Judy from tumbling out.

Their house in Fresno always welcomed music. From the two piano-playing Irish priests that visited the house, singing “The Lodger in the House Next Door,” to Barbara’s hours sitting on the floor next to the console radio listening to the Saturday broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera, absently pulling threads out of the carpet.

Oscar played the violin and taught each of his daughters to sing. They enjoyed a lifelong love of ensemble singing, with Barbara’s strong alto voice. As a student at San Joaquin Memorial High School, she sang in the A-Capella choir, which anchored the Christmas service at newly built Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Fresno. She taught her youngest sister Judy to harmonize to “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” assuring her that learning to harmonize with one song she would be able to harmonize any. It turned out to be true.

Barbara loved scholarship and literature. When she wasn’t listening to the Met, she habitually lay prone on the living room rug with her Shakespeare’s Works open in front of her. She loved “Hamlet” and bought her own recording of Lawrence Olivier’s version.

She also loved popular music, Jo Stafford and Margaret Whiting, and the movies of June Allison, Janet Leigh, Jane Powell, Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Debbie Reynolds, Deborah Carr, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Robert Taylor, and a very young Robert Wagner. And she had a weakness for scaring the pants off her youngest sister by tuning in radio serials such as, “Inner Sanctum,” “The Shadow,” and “The Hall of Fantasy,” despite her parents’ explicit babysitting instructions.

Barbara achieved top scores on the SAT and aspired to attend college. But she was jolted out of childhood and sent on a different trajectory when her father died suddenly and her mother took Carol, Judy, and Barbara to live in Los Angeles. Suddenly, her vision of classes and exams turned into a secretarial job at St. Mary’s Academy.

The family made a new home in the Parish of St. John the Evangelist and there Barbara made the best of her new life. She joined the Unamites Club, for single young adults. She dated and was popular. But one young man stood out to her and quickly won her over.

Barbara married Richard Carl Anctil December 26, 1953. They immediately started a family, so successfully in fact, her mother was known to have quipped, “Every shot, a pigeon,” in reference to their prowess. Barbara loved babies, utterly, unabashedly, anyone’s.

Between age twenty and age thirty-nine, Barbara visited the maternity ward twelve times. Her youngest child, Courtney, was born on her birthday.

The Anctil house seemed to run like clockwork, and visitors were always astounded remarking, “It’s so neat!” as if Barbara would live any other way. She posted a weekly chore list on the refrigerator that directed each to a task such as the massive after-dinner clean-up, and the assembly-line production of daily school lunches. She managed most of the cooking on her own with her giant skillet and ubiquitous 14-quart pot. And from time to time, she escaped back to the Barbara of her childhood, lost in a library book, seemingly surrounded by a force field of concentration.

She worked hard to be present for each of her children as individuals, though she felt most confident with them as youngsters. She confessed struggling with raising teenagers. “I didn’t know how to help them,” she reflected later in her life, an insight that perhaps reflected frustration, but also a sense of letting go as they strove for independence.

The stages of her family life were defined in moves from house to house. Early on, the family lived in the Los Angeles area. Manhattan Beach, Inglewood, El Segundo, were a few of the towns. Then in 1970, came the big move to Portland, Oregon. It was a step she fought against, but was as much out of her hands as the original move to LA had been when she was a teen. For years, stories and movies depicting people returning home moved her to tears. Richard once received a tirade about being uprooted after the two of them went to the movie, “The Trip to Bountiful.”

She came to love Portland though, with her connections to her beloved sisters in law, Connie, Mary, and Nadine, and her friends from the neighborhood and the Madeleine parish, and later St. Pius X. She saw her children graduate from several high schools and colleges around the area. She became a grandmother, and great-grandmother, happy to return to her love of caring for babies and children, arguably long past the time when her strength and dexterity for handling them had waned.

Many people were astounded at the feat of raising so many children, perhaps enough to define a life well-lived. But in middle age, she reentered the workforce. At first, she worked in roles she knew well – editing and food service. But she strived for more than those early roles, and found herself lamenting her elusive college education until her last job, at Timberline Software, later Sage, for XX years. Encouraged by David DeRego, her nephew by marriage, she took a leap, learned the business, and became a key person supporting communication inside and outside the company. That work gave her great pride and a sense of accomplishment, as intimidating as it seemed when she first undertook it, and David became her favorite boss ever. Richard also swelled with pride talking about Barbara as a professional. She continued to work well past standard retirement age, until she was 71.

The final, perhaps greatest challenge of her life was losing Richard in 1999, after 46 wedding anniversary celebrations. Their life together had not always been blissful, and sometimes the grind of their responsibility seemed to overwhelm them. But they always found a way to shore up their commitment. And in the end, their marriage was buoyant with humor, joy, and love enveloping everyone around them. Richard’s death wracked her with frequent spasms of uncertainty, loneliness and fear.

It was years before she could feel whole and confident again. But the children were still there. Pictures depicting Easter at Grandma Barbara’s, painting Grandma’s house, Grandma and some little me at the beach, depict the balm that comforted her. Even in her last days, the children were around her, reminding her of her significance.

Barbara Francesca was preceded in death by her parents, Mary and Oscar, by her husband Richard, by her sisters Pat and Carol, and by her grandson, Abraham John, who died at birth in December 1986 and interred just two weeks ago, which she was happy to know, and her son-in-law Matt Brandup.

She is survived by her sister, Judy, who is here with us today and we are so glad she is here.

Now, I’m sure some of you are wondering if I’m about to name everyone in our family. I am. But before I do, I want you to think about my grandma with her 12 kids and their kids…and their kids.. Now, in your own life, how many times have you gotten a call or a text from a brother, a dad, a niece – do you have Paula’s address? Do you know when Chris’ birthday is? Oh, hey, it’s me again…what year was he born? Hey--- eek…what’s Megan’s husband’s name? And their new kid?

Well, my Grandma got those calls so often that sometime in the early-2000’s, she developed an Excel spreadsheet and it has everyone’s name, address, phone, mobile phone, spouse, children, etc…. that document still circulates today and it’s a very important job in our family. So, this was quite easy to do, so here we go. She is also survived by

All 12 of her children and their spouses:

1. Steve & Lari Anctil

2. Paula Ramsey & Jim

3. Vince & Cynthia Anctil

4. Regina Anctil & Michael Bornemann

5. Matt Anctil

6. Elizabeth Anctil

7. Christopher Anctil

8. Mark Anctil

9. Rick & Tracy Anctil

10. Peter & Natalie Anctil

11. Jim & Melissa Anctil

12. Courtney & Brian Vaage

Her grandchildren:

1. Heather Dewar

2. Ryan Leverenz

3. Renee Larsen

4. Claire Francesca Anctil

5. Sarah Anctil-Adel

6. Emily Anctil

7. Becca Anctil

8. Lauren Larsen

9. Travis Anctil

10. Kevan Anctil

11. Joshua Anctil

12. Ben Anctil

13. Brittany Walker

14. Nohealani Sentenac

15. Nick Anctil

16. Richard Anctil

17. Thomas Anctil

18. Tucker Anctil

19. Evan Anctil

20. Thomas Huffman

21. Nicole (Coley) Raustein

22. Zach Holden

23. Max Holden

24. Megan Brandrup

25. Emma Brandrup

26. And Gabriel Brandrup

The spouses of her grandchildren:

1. Scott Dewar

2. David Larsen

3. Gabe Adel

4. Ryan Sidley

5. Roman Lorentz

6. Darren Larsen

7. Lindsey Anctil

8. Kiara Anctil

9. Daniel Sentenac

10. Danielle Anctil

11. Jessica Huffman

12. Eric Raustein

13. Walter Williams

14. Marco Collina

And her great-grandchildren:

1. Lindsay Dewar

2. Logan Dewar

3. Jack Larsen

4. Jane Larsen

5. Camden Adel

6. Wyatt Adel

7. Bella Larsen

8. Isaac Larsen

9. Nina Larsen

10. Raphael Anctil

11. Riley Walker

12. Juliet Atwood

13. Levi Atwood

14. Charlie Huffman

15. Mason Huffman

16. Addison Raustein

17. Daniela Anctil

18. Hendrix Williams

19. Maya Williams

20. Finley Lorentz

Good bye, Barb, Boots, Mom, Aunt Barbara, Gramma. God keep you.

Family and friends who are not able to attend the funeral in person will be able to view it on livestream on the parish website.

On the day of the funeral:

-Go to stpius.org

- click on Livestream Our Mass

- click on the Play icon

The funeral video will be available in the LiveStream Archives for several days after the funeral.

Approximately three days after the funeral the IT department (aka Paul Miller) will provide the following:

St. Pius X – Livestream Remembrance Video Download Link

The following link is good for 72 Hrs (xx/xx/2022 @ 9:58 am EST)

https://streamspot.xxxxxxxxx

The information will be sent to you via email, it is good for 72 hours, and anyone can download it.