Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, August 01, 2002

An article about Jerry BARKER, a Ringgold county native, was recently featured in the Mount Pleasant News from Mount Pleasant.

BARKER is the son of Guelda BARKER and the late Marshall BARKER of Mount Ayr and a graduate of Mount Ayr Community high school.

BARKER has spent most of his working life at the Blue Bird bus company in Mount Pleasant, where he has served as quality manager for 17 years as well as a number of other positions.

In 1967 he became a partner in a Christmas business and has run the business since 1985.

He moved the business to five acres in Oakland Mills, where a red barn houses BARKER'S Christmas Trees.

At one point his goal was to be the Christmas Tree King of southeast Iowa, but being too big took him away from the part he loved about the business the most, the personal contact with customers.

The BARKERS like families to come out, spend some time at the farm, throw snow balls, listen to Christmas music, drink cider or cocoa and enjoy the tradition of taking home a Christmas tree, the story says.

In 2001 he and his wife, Jean, built a home near the Oakland Mills site and moved there.

With his background in biology, he has helped design and plant stands of walnut, spruce, pines, Russian olive and choke cherry trees, ideal cover and habitat for pheasants, quail and other wildlife, the story said.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2012