Barbara J. Wiley, 85, of Coupeville, died May 3, 2008, at Home Place in Oak Harbor. Barbara was born Oct. 6, 1923, in Lyons, Kan. Her father and her 16-year-old sister reared Barb after her mother passed away unexpectedly approximately one year after Barb was born. She and her family endured some pretty hard times, which forced her family to move to Nampa, Idaho for work. Her father’s occupation was harvesting hay for farmers. Little Barb and her sister worked long days right alongside with their dad.
Barbara had an ear for music and could play the piano and harmonica with great enthusiasm. “She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes,” was her favorite tune. Because of her father’s strict religious beliefs she would carefully listen to the up beat music on the radio when her family was not at home to practice and learn her favorite tunes.
During her years growing up in Nampa, she was a “jokester” and quite a baseball player throughout her high school years. Barb loved her sports. She gave the little town of Nampa much joy with her many home run hits on the baseball field.
After Barb graduated from Nampa High School (1941), she left home to join her older sister in Wichita, Kan., and was hired to be a telephone switchboard operator with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Within a couple of years she decided she had enough of Kansas so she caught a bus and headed for Washington State to join her older brother and his wife living in Coupeville. One of Barb’s favorite sayings was: “When I stepped of the bus for the first time in Oak Harbor I thought it was the jumping off place.”
Barb’s first real job on the Island was working at the Oak Harbor Laundry where she later met Walt Wiley (Ship Service Man Laundry Third Class at NAS Whidbey). Walt and Barb were married Sept. 10, 1945. Together they reared their two daughters, Carrie and Nancy, in Coupeville in the same 920 square foot farmhouse where they lived and retired, total of 64 years.
From 1951 to 1968, Barb worked at Prairie Center Mercantile. Her description of work consisted of retailing and purchasing in hardware, grocery, meat, produce, lumber and related materials, appliances, sports equipment, dry goods, paint and paint sundries, drug sundries, stationery, power tools, garden supplies, feed and grain, houseware departments and cashiering, pumping gas, delivering groceries, stocking shelves, mopping floors, lifting and hauling heavy produce boxes from the produce truck, hauling up to 60-pound bags of concrete to a customer’s vehicle, working with powdered asbestos, cutting sheets of glass for windows, slicing cheddar cheese with a wire to the perfect cut and weight, cleaning the pickle barrel, sales spokeswoman for the new popular early Hondas at that time, (trail bikes, 90s and 450s, lawnmowers and knowing how to maintain them in detail). Barb’s favorite task was running the entire hardware department. If you needed a certain tool for a certain project Barb would find it and show you how to use it with “humor to boot!” Barb had become a legend at Prairie Center. Herb Pickard got his money’s worth when he hired Barb. It was hard work but a lot of laughter and community friendships came with the job. Barb’s laughter would place a smile on any sour face.
Barb later worked at the Commissary, in the produce department, Civil Service at the Naval Seaplane Base in 1968. She retired from Civil Service 1983.
Through the years of Barb and Walt’s life together they both had a passion for vegetable gardening, canning anything that would fit in a jar, fishing, hunting, camping, bowling and golfing. When the opportunity arose, which was often, Barb and her lady fishing buddies(Edna Farquhar and Ann Mary Franzen), would fish the waters at Fort Casey all day long. These three ladies had a ball! Barb also enjoyed bowling and was indeed good at it. She held a high average of 215 at Oak Bowl and a 207 high average at Ebey Bowl for years. Walt and Barb enjoyed their years at Ebey Bowl, which brought the Coupeville community and their families together for many, many years.
After her husband Walt died in 1988, Barb purchased a 23-foot RV and traveled from campsite to campsite all over the state of Washington with the Sound Solos, a retired ladies group. If any individual had any problems with their RV, Barb was hunted down for help and repair; she would get them back on the road in no time.
In addition to Barb’s personality, “a person would know immediately where they stood with Barb Wiley.” She was a woman that spoke straight with her opinions and she was consistent! If you knew Barb Wiley you knew NOT to bring up the subject of the “Island County Courthouse”!
Barb and Walt are survived by their daughters, Carrie Hurst of Skagit County and Nancy Salmon of Coupeville; two granddaughters, Deborah Brownfield of Skagit County and Shannon Ganoe with husband Gary of Stevens City, Va.; and four great-grandchildren. Barb also leaves her sister Dorothy Oyer and niece MaryLou Oyer, both of Wichita, Kan. Walt leaves his brothers Howard Wiley of Mission, Texas and Don Wiley of Waterloo, Iowa.
Their daughter Nancy would like to express her sincerest thanks and gratitude for the compassionate care provided to Barb by Dr. Knaack and the staff at Homeplace. The staff at Homeplace got quite an education from Barb; she spoke her mind and opinion to the end. She kept the place interesting.
A graveside committal service will be held for Barb and Walt at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 10, at Sunnyside Cemetery, Coupeville. Linda Haddon has been asked to speak at the graveside. Arrangements are entrusted to Burley Funeral Chapel, Oak Harbor.
