Barbara Ruth Weikert, 84

Barbara Ruth Weikert was born June 26, 1931, and passed away Sept. 25, 2015.

Barbara was born in Kalispell to Austin Dean and Ruth D. Weikert, then residents of their homestead north of Polebridge.

She spent her early life in various Flathead Valley communities, including Lakeside and later near the Montana State Salmon Hatchery on the west side of Flathead Lake. Barbara graduated from Flathead County High School in 1949. She received an associate degree in 1951 from John Muir Junior College, Pasadena, California; taught a year at Ashley Creek Elementary School in Kila; earned a Bachelor of Science degree in library science at San Jose State College, California; worked two years as a high school librarian in Fall River Mills, California; and received her Master of Science degree in library science in 1957 from the University of Southern California.

After earning her Master of Science, Barbara became an Army Special Services librarian for three years in Heidelberg and Kitzingen, Germany. She was able to tour most of western Europe and the near east while working there. When she returned to the U.S., she worked in Spokane as assistant county librarian until the fall of 1962 when she and her youngest sister, Mary Cay, moved to Tacoma, Washington. In Tacoma, Barbara worked for Pierce County Libraries for more than 30 years in several positions.

She became very active in Mason United Methodist Church, in Wesleyan Service Guild, later known as United Methodist Women, American Association of University Women, League of Women Voters, Church Women United and several community organizations. She held offices at the local, district, state and regional levels in several of these groups.

Throughout her life, Barbara loved to read, walk, play the piano, research genealogy, and travel across the United States and through foreign countries including the USSR, China, and Cuba. She spent many vacations in Montana visiting family and friends.

Barbara died at the home of her niece, Cheryl Oltmann, near Vancouver, Washington, after being ill with cancer for several months.

She was preceded in death by her parents, and her brother James Austin Weikert.

Barbara is survived by her sisters, Elizabeth Dean Davis of Helena, Mildred Clare Connelly of Ridgefield, Washington, and Mary Cay Utterback and Dick, of Greeley, Colorado; and many nieces, nephews, and their children and grandchildren.