Barbara Jan Cutler

Barbara Jan Vaughan Cutler passed away peacefully at home in Yuma, Arizona on December 16, 2024. Barbara Jan was born on February 13, 1940, to David Wesley and Johnnie Mae Vaughan in Clovis, New Mexico, and went on to live her 84 years very much on her own terms.

The Vaughan family moved to Somerton following her father’s return from the war in 1946, and Barbara Jan resided in Yuma County all her life. She attended Mary Post and Fourth Avenue Grammar Schools and graduated from Yuma High in 1958. Barbara Jan married Jack E. Cutler in 1961; they had two daughters together, Jodi Lyn and Jami Dee.

A gifted storyteller, Jan loved regaling her daughters, and nieces and nephews with tales of her youthful Yuma adventures, especially swimming her horse in the Colorado and wearing her Levis “until they could stand up in the corner” and getting into mischief with her best friend Jeffie Gilpin. She had a wide-ranging work history, such as scooping ice cream at Thrifty Drug, and as a telephone operator. But she is best known as a gifted hairdresser. For over thirty years she served a clientele that would follow her anywhere, finally including her own downtown salon, Stickers. She also did hair and makeup for the Miss Yuma County pageant for many years. The whimsical décor of her stations, and her annual workday Halloween costumes (such as, Cave Woman, Red Devil and a member of Kiss) are the stuff of legend.

Jan loved to dance, and she was good at it. Prior to marrying Jack, she taught ballroom dancing briefly at an Arthur Murray Studio, and over the years she and Jack won numerous Saturday night dance contests here in Yuma. Jan was an artist. A painter and ceramicist, she filled her home with furniture she had refinished herself and quirky items she collected on her travels. The walls were hung with her original work and that of others. Her ceramic sculptures were exhibited in a variety of galleries in the region

Jan was an adventurer. She kayaked the San Juan, went on geology field trips, and was a BLM site steward for archeological sites in the Yuma region. She was always up for a road trip, whether on a motorcycle ride to San Francisco or in a Buick sedan up Highway One.

In 2000 Barbara Jan married R.L. Sullivan and acquired her second family: his brothers and their wives and kids, and R.L.’s sons Jason and Johnny Ray and their families. Jan and R.L enjoyed family get togethers, vacations with friends, and going to see the Diamondbacks.

Barbara Jan Cutler loved Yuma; its history and the people who live here. She treasured her friends most of all. She was preceded in death by her husband R.L. Sullivan, and her daughter Jami Dee Cutler. She is survived by her daughter Jodi Lyn Cutler, three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and her good dog, Louie. A beloved mom, auntie, and Nana, she will not be forgotten.

Please join us for a no-host celebration of life on February 16th at 2:30 pm, Lutes Casino, Downtown Yuma. In lieu of flowers, donations to Humane Society of Yuma are suggested.