Barbara Burris, longtime Bartlesville resident, died September 17, 2022, in Houston, Texas. She was 95, and a stylish dresser who possessed a keen mind to the end. Barbara was born at home in Coodys Bluff, Oklahoma, on November 9, 1926, to George W VanWinkle and Ola Rosamund (Sellars) VanWinkle. She enjoyed an idyllic childhood, roaming the woods and fishing in the streams with her father and brother Earl, called Bub, and with a later addition to the family, her sister Carol. After Barbara graduated first in her class from Childers School in 1944, her mother lost no time in driving her to Bartlesville to apply for a job at Phillips Petroleum, where she worked for 9 years, becoming an executive secretary. Her spare time was spent modeling for Montaldo’s Department Store, having great fun with a series of roommates and dating a number of Phillips engineers before marrying CW “Chuck” Doornbos in 1953. Though he was 21 years her senior, she always said that Chuck was “the handsomest man in Bartlesville.” They had one daughter, Jeanne, in 1954, and were married for 33 years, until his death in 1986. Barbara lived a very active life in those years, volunteering with the Service League, for her daughter’s public schools and ballet studios, as an active Republican campaigner while Chuck served as an Oklahoma State Representative from 1960-1974, and with the Hillcrest Ladies Golf Association. She had many, many close friends and led a busy social life, attending parties and club events, always beautifully dressed and eager to meet new people.
Barbara found her true calling as an amateur golfer rather late in life, in her mid-40s, finding it a fascinating challenge and consuming pleasure, one that she was able to share with her second husband, Dr. Thomas G Burris. They married in 2000 and lived on the Hillcrest course, so they could ride out of an evening and play a few holes before dark. That, and traveling to Sanibel Island, Florida, and fishing at Grand Lake were enjoyable for them together. After his death, in 2018, she looked out on that same beautiful view of the course for several years before moving to Houston less than 3 months before her death, to be close to her daughter Jeanne and son-in-law Michael, her grandson David and granddaughter-in-law Christine, and their two children, Beck and Kate, who were the delights of Barbara’s final years, and who had both visited her in Bartlesville, coming to love “Baba” themselves.
Barbara was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Earl VanWinkle, and her stepchildren from her first marriage, Ann Marie Preston, Foster Doornbos, and Philip Doornbos. She is survived by her sister Carol Harney, her daughter Jeanne Doornbos and son-in-law Michael Maher, her grandson David Maher and granddaughter-in-law Christine Maher, and her great-grandchildren, Beck and Kate Maher. She also leaves five wonderful nephews and a faithful niece, and many stepchildren, step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren from her marriages to CW Doornbos and Dr. Thomas G Burris. Barbara was adamantly opposed to a funeral service for herself, and was cremated, as was her wish. Her daughter and son-in-law will scatter her ashes in her rural childhood haunts, where the three of them took many drives in recent years, reliving together her memories of growing up out in the country, happy and free.
Donations in her memory may be made to Elder Care in Bartlesville, an organization that provided assistance to Barbara and Dr. Burris for many years.
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