Nancy Jane Barnes

NANCY JANE MARTIN BARNES Nancy Jane Martin Barnes passed away peacefully surrounded by family early Monday, December 11, 2017. She was born Feb. 8, 1916, at German Hospital in Kansas City, MO, to Edward Lowe and Vivien Lois Springer Martin. She, her brother Edward Lowe Martin and parents spent a few years living with her grandmother Nancy Beauchamp Springer in Independence in the "Springer compound" on Winner Road. Her uncle and aunt Robert and Maude Springer Brown and family lived next door; and uncle and aunt Eugene and Helen Springer and family lived around the corner. Altogether there were eight cousins. Robert Brown bought a Guernsey cow, as he wanted all the children to have good wholesome (raw) milk to drink. He also kept bees, so all the families were supplied with honey for their biscuits and cornbread. Nancy Jane's parents soon built a house on 55th Street across from Loose Park in Kansas City. She grew up there and graduated from Southwest High School. She spent almost every weekend in Independence with her grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She was very close to all her cousins as though they were her siblings. Nancy Jane graduated from Wellesley College in 1937 with a degree in Botany and Horticulture and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior. Her father died the year she graduated, so after graduation she returned to Kansas City and lived with her mother. She considered going to the University of Illinois for a landscaping degree but decided instead to work for Kansas City's Parks Department. She also was a partner with a Wellesley friend in a landscape design business they founded. When World War II started, Nancy Jane left her city job and went to work for the North American Aviation Company, which was building B-25 bombers, and later, the jet planes that the plant began turning out before the end of the war. She was the first woman hired as a Planner, and she worked long hours, often 12-hour days and Sundays. Her job was to take engineering plans and turn them into shop orders. When the war ended, she was offered other jobs at North American but decided to return to the city Parks Department, where she was rehired as a Senior Research Assistant. She also continued her private landscape design work. Nancy Jane was engaged to a young pilot who sadly was killed during World War II. For the next 14 years she continued to live with her mother, being very active in Junior League, and serving as a docent at the Nelson Art Gallery. She also did admittance interviews for Wellesley and continued with her landscaping work. Wayne Barnes appeared on the scene in 1959. Nancy Jane had known his first wife, who was a "marvelous teacher," as they had been in a study group together. She also knew Wayne's daughter and knew of Wayne from church. She had talked the Barneses into allowing their garden to be part of a Wellesley Club garden tour. One day, after Wayne's wife had died, he called Nancy Jane and invited her to go to a Maria Callas concert. During the concert, there was a bomb scare, and the audience spent some time standing around on 14th Street before the concert could resume. To reciprocate, she invited Wayne to accompany her to a reception for Ms. Callas the next night at the Art Gallery. They became engaged, with April 6, 1960, set as the wedding date. Her cousin Margaret Brown Goolsby came from Oklahoma about 3 weeks before the wedding to help her and her mother sew her trousseau. There were masses of jonquils brought up from Oklahoma to decorate the house. Because of terrible snowstorms in Kansas City in April of 1960, three pre-nuptial luncheons had to be cancelled, nevertheless the quiet family wedding took place as planned before the fireplace in her mother's house. Her oldest cousin Irving Brown came from Washington, D.C. to give her away. Wayne passed away in 1998. During the 38 years she and Wayne were married they were very much involved in their church, and in the cultural life (especially music) of Kansas City and in the Junior League. They almost never missed a U. of Missouri football game. Nancy Jane remained socially active for the reminder of her life. She loved classical music and in particular enjoyed attending The Friends of Chamber Music concerts. She attended the Junior League Garden Club meeting as recently as a few weeks ago and went out to lunch with friends just days ago. She was a remarkable woman with a keen mind, great intellectual curiosity, and an amazing memory. She was always deeply connected to and interested in all the members of her far-flung family, her many dear friends, neighbors and their families keeping remarkably current with names, ages, occupations and schools. She had a keen interest and knowledge about books, art, and music; she often quoted from memory poems learned in school and beyond. Particularly, she valued the natural world, being able to name trees, wildflowers, and birds seen on trips half a century or more previously. She rejoiced in her garden, the birds she saw at her window feeder, and the turn of the seasons. She was a truly bright spirit, and it is a measure of the way she has loved and cared for others throughout her life, that they, in turn, especially her nephew Deverick Martin and second cousins Marita Brown Aufner (Frank) and John L. Brown (Candy) and their families, have loved and cared for her in her later years. She is survived by granddaughters Vivian Hutchison (Jeff Falgout), Eliza Ketchum (Ryan), cousins Robert Goolsby (Nancy), Nancy Ann Goolsby, Sara Goolsby, Barbara Faunce (Ron), Robert Charles Brown (Marian Moor), Robert C. Brown (Nancy), Elizabeth Brown Kaplan, Susan Brown Songe (Robert) and their families. A memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 4, at the Country Club Christian Church, 6101 Ward Parkway, Kansas City, MO. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to St. Luke's Hospital Foundation or the charity of your choice.