Clara Barnes

Clara May Barnes was born Clara May Johnston on May 1, 1918 in Flagler, Colorado. She was the youngest child of LeRoy and Ola May Johnston and had 1 sister, 2 brothers and 3 half brothers, all of whom have preceded her to heaven. The family moved to Florence, Colorado and that is where Clara grew up. She graduated from Florence High School on May 24, 1935, one year before the rest of her class. She then worked at the Telephone Company as an operator until she met Everett C. Barnes and they were married in September, 1946. She became a stepmother to Everett's daughter Shirley Barnes, age 12, and Clara gave birth to her own daughter, Ellen, in 1947.
The Family lived in Pueblo, Colorado while Everett was an employee of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. After relocating to Tennessee for a year, the entire family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1951. While in Phoenix, Clara was a mother and housewife and worked part time at various positions, always taking the summers off to travel to Colorado to visit relatives and camp and fish on the Western Slope. In 1966, they moved to Colorado permanently. Clara was widowed in 1976. She continued to work for the City and County of Denver until her retirement in 1986.
Clara Barnes was always active in the Christian Church and taught Sunday school and played the piano for church. Her deep religious and spiritual faith have always been the center of her life, along with her family and friends. Her passion was sewing and making all of her clothes and Ellen's too. She was a master tailor and seamstress. Other passions were reading, traveling to Hawaii to vacation and, of course, her beloved Colorado Rockies Baseball Team, which she followed adamantly. She enjoyed church activities and some of her favorite times were spent enjoying the live entertainment and happy hour at Canterbury Gardens, the retirement and assisted living community where she had lived for the last 18 years.
Clara is the grandmother of 4 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great grandchildren who all live in Arizona and Colorado. She has 3 nephews in the Denver area and 7 great nieces and nephews in and around Colorado.
Until 1987 she enjoyed good health. She then began suffering from clinical depression and fought it for the last years of her life. In 1999 she broke a leg and went through stomach surgery and spent 5 months in rehab before she could return to Canterbury. This slowed her down but didn't stop her. In 2003 she broke the other leg and then was then confined to a wheelchair. She continued with her activities and got away from Canterbury several days a week to go to the care facility that was part of Total Long Term Care (her medical service provider) service.
In recent years she had a couple of bouts with pneumonia and other complications. God took her to him Tuesday August 21st with a stroke. Ellen and David were able to be with her and by her side in her last hours. Clara saw the "light" and was called to heaven in a passing that was peaceful and calm. God was kind and has blessed all of us during this time.


Because of Clara's tremendous passion for the live entertainment provided at Canterbury Gardens we are establishing an entertainment/music fund in Clara's name to help assure that this facility can continue to provide this joyful activity for all of their residents.