Barbara Jean Twibell, wife, mother, business owner, school bus driver, hairdresser and author, passed away at a Seattle hospital Sunday, March 25, 2018, at the age of 77. Barbara was born at Ft. Vancouver, Wash., Feb. 28, 1941, the daughter of Wallace E. and Violet M. (Whitstine) Dean.
Barbara had lived in Alabama, Vancouver, her grandparents homestead at Cape Horn on the Columbia River Gorge, Des Moines and Olympia, Wash. She graduated from North Thurston High School in 1959. She was a percussionist in high school and Barbara was awarded the John Phillip Souza Trophy for musical excellence in the percussion division. She also was awarded a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music in New York. Family circumstances prevented her from taking advantage of the scholarship. For periods of time she would play in the percussion section of the Portland, Ore. Symphony.
Barb attended hairdressers school in Tacoma and worked in salons in Olympia, Lacey and at the Tyee at Tumwater. After her marriage to Doug Twibell on June 8, 1963, in Tacoma and while he was attending the California College of Mortuary Science in Los Angeles, she attended advanced training at the Comer and Duran Hairdressing Design in Hollywood. Through the years she would shift her occupational direction to driving school bus for the Olympia School District. She also attended extension classes of Central Washington University in Seattle to receive certification in driver education.
She and her husband purchased Mills & Mills Funeral Service in Olympia in 1980. Barb established a Widow/Widower support group in Olympia and when the company expanded to all along the coast to Chula Vista, Calif. the concept of the support group was spread throughout the company funeral homes.
In the 1990s when the company was sold to a much larger funeral firm Barbara and Doug sought a smaller firm in a town we could know who we were talking to. In April 1994, the Gordon Peterson firm of Fern Hill Funeral Home was purchased, bringing along a son, Keith, making it what Barbara truly liked, a close family owned and operated funeral home.
Also through the years, Barbara was typing a compendium, writing her thoughts and history of her time at the homestead in the Columbia River Gorge. The notes just kept growing and her aide, Betsy Seidel, said for her to just keep writing for you are writing a book. And eventually it was. “Daughter Of The Gorge” was published in 2003.
Barbara was a member of Immanuel Baptist Church, Hoquiam; The Rotary Club of Aberdeen and was a Paul Harris Fellow; she also was an honorary member of The Rotary Club of East Grays Harbor County Centential; facilitator of the Solos of Grays Harbor, a widow/widower support group; an honorary member of the Harbor Faith Riders; Chapter 36, Order of Eastern Star and the Order of Amaranth, both of Tumwater.
Her greatest joy was family, her boys and grandchildren. She had been a Cub Scout Den Leader when the boys were of that age. At one time she loved to ski and in fact that is how she met her husband. In 2001 she and her husband went in their Bayliner Explorer up the inside passage all the way to Skagway and back to home in Puget Sound. They travelled to Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, Ephesus in 1988, by train throughout Switzerland, to Paris and Chunnel to London and another experience with the Phantom Of The Opera in 1997. They toured areas of China as representatives visiting not only the usual sights but Chinese funeral homes. The also toured Ireland and Scotland, and have made several trips to visit Jerry and Gloria Brown at their home in Mexico. Their most frequent journey has been to timeshare of 30 years on Maui. In the last three years the pass-time was trailering with close church friends, Kim and Gayanne Hjelden.
She is survived by her husband of 54 years, Doug, Aberdeen; two sons: Keith Lawrence and wife Heather Twibell, Cosmopolis and Paul Douglas Twibell, Alki Point, Seattle; five grandchildren: April, Amy, Abby, Joseph Douglas and Allie Twibell, all of Cosmopolis; and her granddoggie, Rusty.
Visitation will be held from 1 – 8 p.m. Thursday, March 29, at the Chapel at Twibell’s Fern Hill Funeral Home.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, March 30, in Immanuel Baptist Church, 1200 Soule St., Hoquiam. Pastor W. Kent Gravley and Pastor Brad Gill will officiate. A reception will follow the services at the church. Interment will take place later in the afternoon at Mills & Mills Memorial Park, 5725 Littlerock Rd., Tumwater.
A card of condolence with a memory or a message may be sent to the family at www.fernhillfuneral.com.
Arrangements are entrusted to Barbara’s family at Twibell’s Fern Hill Funeral Home, 2208 Roosevelt St., Aberdeen.
The Twibell family would request that our community be truly aware of the warning signs of the onset of a stroke, FAST:
Fast, face distortion
Arm, arm weakness, drooping
Speech, slurred speech
