Barbara Katherine Robeson Stocking, long time area resident, died peacefully on Tuesday, January 26, 2010, at Franke Tobey Jones Health Care Center in Tacoma. Born August 25, 1921, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Barbara grew up mostly in the Seattle area. After graduating from Seattle’s Roosevelt High School where she sang in the A Cappella Choir, she began her lifelong love affair with flowers by working for Crissey Flowers in downtown Seattle.

During the war she served for a year in the U.S. Navy “WAVES” in Grosse Ile Michigan as a Pharmacists Mate before being granted honorable discharge to marry Lieutenant Samuel Baker Stocking Jr. (1912-1991) of Tacoma. After the war, Barbara and Sam spent a year in Toronto, Canada where Sam was teaching, and then returned to the Tacoma area to be closer to their families and to enjoy life on Puget Sound. Over the next forty years they lived and raised their three children mostly in homes along the waterfront at Browns Point, Lakota Beach, and Dash Point. Barbara was great lover of gardening, dancing, 1940’s music, boating, beachcombing and seafood; in summers you could often find her eating oysters right off the rocks. She was an active member of Women of Rotary in Tacoma.

Outside of home and family, most important to Barbara was her involvement along with Sam as a founding member, starting in 1959, of Wayside United Church of Christ in Federal Way. She found great fellowship in her service to the church in many formal and informal capacities including Moderator, Women’s Fellowship leader, numerous committees, and participation in landscaping, designing the church kitchen, and seasonal decorating of the chapel. The church was her home away from home.

Throughout her life, Barbara was much appreciated for her good-natured optimism and her sense of humour. She is survived by her sister Nancy Conrad of Olympia, her three children – Baker of Poulsbo, Nancy of Toronto, and Amy of Minneapolis; two grandchildren – Amanda of Vancouver, B.C., and Melodie of Chimacum; and three great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, February 7, at Wayside United Church, 2000 SW Dash Point Road, Federal Way.