A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, July 16th at Gearhart Funeral Home in Coon Rapids, MN from 11 am - 2 pm, with interment at Morningside Memorial Gardens in Coon Rapids at 2:30 pm.
Born in Aurora, IL, Barbara grew up in Sioux Falls, SD, graduating from Cathedral High School in 1960. After attending Nettleton Business College, she moved to Minneapolis, worked at an insurance agency, got married, and had a daughter and two sons. Barbara’s favored interjection was, “Oh my God,” using it to express joy at the birth of her three children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. She used it to express sorrow at the death of her parents, her husband, her brother and sister. She would also utter this frequent refrain at family visitations and vacations, the unwrapping of gifts, the antics of the family’s two dogs and three cats, and even upon receiving her Avon products. In one of her last conversations, Barbara said, “I have two wishes. I want to live to be 90, and I want to take my family to Puerto Vallarta one more time.” She didn’t get her wishes, but on her heavenly 90th birthday, her family will go to Puerto Vallarta, sit on the balcony where she loved to gaze at the Pacific, and hear in the soft ocean breeze the words, “Oh my God,” and remember.
Barbara is preceded in death by her parents, Adele and Richard, husband, Jim, and siblings Jim and Annie. She is survived by her daughter Nancy, and son-in-law Bryon Davis of Blaine, MN, with whom she lived, son Richard of Bohemia, NY (life partner Kathleen Sawtelle), and son Robert of Ebenezer, Canada (life partner Aleshia Crozier); her grandchildren: Jennifer Davis Rindsig (Chris) of Sioux Falls, SD, Eric Davis of Blaine, MN, Hailey and Dylan Montville of Shirley NY: the children of her sons’ partners, William and Christopher Wiebalck, and Landon, George, and Eve Crozier; two great grandchildren: Carter and Cora Rindsig of Sioux Falls; and two sisters: Mary Banbury of Munich, Germany and Patrice Tunge of North Dakota.
Memorials can be directed to Dakota Abilities (https://www.dakotabilities.org/donate). Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared below for the Montville family.
