Viola Catherine Inkelaar

Viola Kathryn (Barr) Inkelaar was born in Joplin, Missouri, September 1, 1932. She grew up in and around Wichita, Kansas, attending high school at Viola High. Before she could complete high school, her mother took ill, and she had to drop out to take care of her younger brothers and sisters.

Not long after, she met and married Fred Inkelaar, a widower with two young sons. They had 9 more children together. With 11 children, her husband and herself, she took care of everything, cooking three meals a day, doing laundry for an army, yet still managing to grow flower gardens that were the envy of all her neighbors, and showering her children with so much love that everyone felt they were her very favorite.

She also found a way to teach them her love of God, getting them to church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday night. With only one car, Viola and Fred would ride up front, and the kids would pile in the back as much as three deep, but she made sure they got there.

She learned to drive and got her driver's license after she turned forty and graduated high school a few years shy of sixty and even completed some college courses. When the kids were grown, she joined the workforce as a supervisor for a commercial cleaning service and later was over quality control for Flambeau Plastics, inspecting yo-yos and cutting boards. In the 1980s she owned her own business, “Naturally Green", a plant store. The store had to close when her mother once again fell ill and needed care along with her beloved sister, Nancy. Late in life, she took up quilting and made quilts for all her children and many of her grandchildren.

Viola loved and cared for everyone but none more than her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They were her joy. She loved God, her family, flowers, quilting, caring and praying for others. She left our world for a heavenly home, August 4, 2026, forever to be loved and remembered.

She is survived by her brother, Albert Barr of Bently, Kansas, her children, Jim Inkelaar (Donna) of Derby, Kansas, Charles Inkelaar of Afton, Oklahoma,, Gilbert Inkelaar (Tommi) of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bonnie Ray (Gene) of Wayne, Oklahoma, Pam Tracy (Dave), Naomi McKinsey (Robert) of Wichita, Kansas, Jerry Inkelaar (Betty) of Wichita, Kansas, Tonya Inkelaar of Wichita, Kansas and Kitty Inkelaar-Seutter (Jesse) of Wichita, Kansas, countless grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.

She is predeceased by her parents, Charles Clyde and Irene Florence Barr, her husband Freddie Ray Inkelaar Sr., her children, Billy Leo Inkelaar, and Freddie Ray Inkelaar Jr., her siblings, Jeannie Burchett Lee, Forrest (Bud) Barr, Darlene Abayan, Nancy Barr, Kenny Barr