Bettie Jean Barnhart

A funeral service is scheduled on Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 2:00 pm at Cason Monk-Metcalf Funeral Directors. Rev. Rick Anderson of Bonita United Methodist Church will be officiating. Interment will follow at Sunset Memorial Park. Pallbearers include Johnathan Emerson, Kelby Bell, Neal Hayes, Jacob Hayes, Norman McBride, Kord Beckerdite and Justin Hayes.

Family and friends are invited to visitation on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm at the funeral home.

Jean is preceded in death by her parents, husband, Joe K Barnhart, and grandchild, Richard M. Barnhart.

She is survived by her children, Charolett Bell and husband Bobby, Michael Hayes, Barbara Beckerdite and husband Kord, Richard Barnhart and wife Kathy; ten grandchildren; eighteen great grandchildren; brother, “Sonkey” Dews and wife Lois; numerous nieces and nephews; and her cockatiel Ellie.

Jean was energetic, courageous, strong minded, creative and loving. She was a natural born leader who didn’t mind telling you who was in charge or how things should be.

She graduated from Garrison High School and then completed her Bachelor’s Degree at Stephen F. Austin State Teacher’s College; fulfilling her goal of becoming a teacher. Her husband Joe’s career took her to Germany where she enjoyed teaching in Department of Defense schools. Later in her career she earned her Master’s Degree in Psychology. She discovered a deep reward in teaching Special Education children and shortly saw the need to earn her PhD in Psychology. She became a diagnostic technician for the Nacogdoches Independent School District, working with both the children and their parents in order to have the maximum impact. Jean would always strive to be the best at whatever she was doing.

After her teaching career, she became interested in daylilies. She learned everything about them: how to plant and care for them, and reproduce and sell them – drawing on her experience of growing up on a farm with her little brother in Nacogdoches county. Jean was a charter member of the Nacogdoches Daylily Society and served four years as president. She helped the club host the Region 6 Daylilly Convention twice. She also served the American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) as a Garden Judge and trained and certified numerous other Garden Judges. Jean earned many awards for her hybrid daylilies, and maintained both a daylily business and a public AHS-certified Display Garden for many years. She hybridized a special lily for each of her children, grandchildren, and many close friends; registering a flower with each person’s name.

Along the way she bought and refurbished the Nacogdoches home of Haden Edwards, a principal member of the Fredonia Rebellion. She opened the Haden Edwards Inn as a bed and breakfast which she ran for seven years all by herself. She greatly enjoyed meeting and interacting with the tourists, businesspeople, and SFA parents who stayed with her. All the while Jean tended to numerous beds of daylilies on the surrounding grounds.

Jean enjoyed fast cars, toting her pistol, and traveling. She traveled to Germany, Spain, Austria, Jamaica, Hawaii, and Washington D.C. She enjoyed the hand work of crafting hooked rugs and crocheting, of which she did to perfection.

Jean was also a devoted member of Bonita United Methodist Church, the United Methodist Women’s Ministry, and the Bonita School Friends. She performed numerous volunteer jobs for the church; enjoying being able to contribute. In her last years she loved her bread ministry. She regularly collected day-old bread and baked goods and redistributed them to those in need. She visited the sick in the hospital and nursing homes. She was a friend to most everyone she met. Jean had a very positive attitude which we all will miss.