To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Arkansas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Arkansas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 5/8/13 • Approved: 5/11/13 • Last Updated: 5/14/13 • R876404-G876404-S3
TJ
Dec 31 1914 - Jan 28 1995
*Obituary
The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas
Monday, January 30, 1995
John Charles Readecker, 80, of Bella Vista died Jan. 28, 1995, at Bates Medical Center in Bentonville. He was born Dec. 31, 1914, in Rosedale, Kan., to Charles and Mary Seuferling Readecker. He played football at and graduated from Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg. He was a major at Wentworth Military Academy for 18 years, a member of the Retired Officers Association, American Legion, Royal Order of Moose and was a golf instructor. He moved to Bella Vista in 1983 from Topeka, Kan., and was a member of St. Theodore's Episcopal Church.
Survivors include his wife, Barbara L. Readecker of the home; one son, John W. Randle of Montevideo, Calif.; and two grandchildren, Jessica Lynn Randle and Aaron J. Randle, both of Montevideo.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Theodore's Episcopal Chruch with the Rev. Edwin K. Sisk officiating. Cremation will follow and internment will be in St. Theodore's Columbarium at a later date.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. today at Callison-Lough Funeral Home of Bentonville.
Memorials may be made to the American Diabetes Association or the American Heart Association.
Barbara
Feb 16 1919 - Nov 2 2010
*Obituary
Benton County Daily Record
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
BELLA VISTA — Barbara Readecker, 91, of Bella Vista, died Nov. 2, 2010, at Ashley Health and Rehab in Rogers. She was born in 1919 in Scammon, Kan., to father, William Batten, a strippit shovel operator and singer, and mother, Katie Batten, a pianist. Barbara was an only child.
Her two early passions were dancing, which was supported by her musical family — and Roman Catholicism, which was not supported at all. Later in life, she justified her rather scandalous teenage conversation in terms of the family's need for purity - which she hoped to improve — and her own need to be different — which she succeeded at fully.
From about the same age, Barbara performed, taught dancing in a variety Kansas towns, spent summers studying in the big city and eventually became a member of The Association of Chicago Dance Masters.
She continued to teach during college and graduated from Pittsburg State Teachers College in 1942 with a bachelor's degree in biology, followed immediately by graduate work in still photography.
Soon after, she met and married Jack Randle, a career Naval aviator who would ultimately serve during World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The relationship lasted long enough for the couple to have a son, John Randle, in 1947, the only child that either of them would ever bring into the world.
Barb converted to the Episcopal Church in the early '50s — because of its near-Catholic orthodory and its post-divorce inclusiveness. She remained an Episcopalian — or as she preferred to call it, "Anglican" — for the rest of her long life.
Barb married a second time in 1956 to a career Air Force officer, Herb Bailey, who spent most of his time orbiting the Soviet Union with his finger on the nuclear trigger. They net at Forbes Air Force Base Hospital where she worked for some years as the go-to gal.
In 1964, while shopping military schools for son John, Barb rediscovered her old college sweetheart, Major John Readecker, athletic director for Wentworth Military Academy, Lexington, Mo. They started dating — again — immediately, got married, bought a horse ranch outside Topeka, Kan., and eventually a summer cabin on Lake Belle Taine near Nevis, Minn. — which were undoubtedly Barbara's happiest days ever.
When John Readecker retired as the vioe principal of Topeka High School in the early '80s, they moved to Bella Vista, Ark., because of its myriad lakes and golf courses. But soon found themselves immersed in the flea market business until John's death in 1995.
This began Barbara's travel phase — with many trips to California to see son John, a Hollywood writer-director-editor, her daughter-in-law, Betsy, an actress who played the mom on "Boy Meets World." her actress-granddaughter, Jessica, and writer-grandson, Aaron. Plus trips and cruises to exotic places.
Barbara was able to remain in her own house und almost the very end, thanks mainly to the help of Jim Chaney, a fellow member of Barbara's Singles Group in Bella Vista and a long-devoted friend.
Barb was living at Ashley Healthcare in Rogers while son John was laying the groundwork for her Oct. 31 move to Ojai, Calif. — a move she became eager to undertake. But a massive siroke in mid-October changed all that and eventually took her life on Nov. 2, 2010.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19, 2010, at St. Theodore's Episcopal Church in Bella Vista.
Cremation arrangements are by Callison-Lough Funeral Home in Bentonville.
Contributed on 5/8/13 by tslundberg
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 876404