BARBARA (Osborn) O'BRIEN 1913 - 2003

ZACK, OSBORN, STUART, WAYTE, OBRIEN, HAYES, BRUNSKILL, PAUTVEIM, PLUMLEY

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 9/12/2003 at 15:36:03

Barbara O. O'Brien

Telegraph Herald - Saturday, August 2, 2003

Barbara O. O'Brien, 87, of Port Orange, Fla., formerly of Dubuque, died Sunday, March 11, 2001, in Port Orange.

Ethel Mae Barbara Osborn was born on Dec. 4, 1913, in Waterloo, Iowa, daughter of Joseph Bentley and A. Florence (Zack) Osborn. She grew up in Dubuque, attended St. Luke's, belonged to YaWaCa and graduated from Dubuque Senior High School.

When she went to Chicago to stay with her father's first cousin, Blossom Plumley, she began the use of E. Barbara and later discarded the E. and became simply Barbara.

On Oct. 1, 1938, way back when, she married W. Stanley Stuart. Seven years later they divorced. She later married Edward T. Wayte; he died in 1961. In 1963, she married William J. O'Brien. After retiring as a vice president of Right Temporary Services in Chicago, she and her husband moved to Florida.

She enjoyed sewing, bridge and playing piano and organ. She was an accomplished artist. She enjoyed reading, especially in the early years, Mazo de la Roche's Jalna series and Charles Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities" and "Required 10th Grade Reading for the Greatest Generation."

She was a wonderful big sister and is very much missed.

Surviving are her husband, William J. O'Brien; two sons, Stanley Stuart, Jr. and Stephen John Stuart; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; her husband's children, William, Timothy and Colleen, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; her nieces, Dianne and Candy, of Fountain Hills, Ariz.; a sister, Lucille Hayes, of Dubuque; and her first cousins, Evelyn Brunskill and Adele Brunskill Pautveim, of Dubuque.

Although she and her first husband, who also survives, never saw each other again, they maintained affection and interest in each other's well-being throughout the years.

She also was preceded in death by her parents, a sister and a brother.

Memorials may be given to Halifax Humane Society, P.O. Box 9035, Daytona Beach, Fla. 32120-9035.

Thy Heavenly Father who seeth in secret will bring the secret bread to the secret need.