Barbara P. Anderson

Barbara P. Anderson

Barbara Anderson passed away peacefully on Dec. 15, 2020.  

She was born on Sept. 3,1926, in Wilmette, Ill., the daughter of Mildred and Stanley Peterson.  

She attended Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and then graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., with a degree in piano and pipe organ.  She earned her master’s degree in English in 1977.  

After her graduation from Northwestern, she left Illinois to be a missionary teaching at a Presbyterian mission school on the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona.  

It was there that she met Lowell Anderson, whom she married in 1950.  They were married for 48 years until his death in 1998.  

Barbara loved good music, the pipe organ, laughter, family and friends.  

She taught piano from the time of her graduation, and played the pipe organ in numerous churches over the course of 65 years.  

She also loved to knit, creating countless sweaters, scarves, hats and gloves for family and friends.  

In her retirement she continued to knit caps for newborn babies, donating them to the hospital, until her eyesight started to fail. 

She was an active member of the P.E.O. Sisterhood Chapter and served as president of her P.E.O. chapters at various times, and her last chapter was KZ in Southern Illinois.  

After returning to Southern Illinois from New Mexico in 2004, she joined the Anna First Evangelical Presbyterian Church, where she continued to play the pipe organ, and enjoyed her Sunday School class and the Women’s Association.  

Her final years were spent at the River to River community of Anna, surrounded by good friends and a caring staff.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; two brothers; and a son-in-law, Tim Robertson.  

She is survived by her four children, M. Brownell Anderson of Springfield, Ill., Warren (Carla) Anderson and Stuart (Pat) Anderson of Cobden, and Lois Robertson of Spokane, Wash.; grandchildren Muriel Zachary, Jessica Anderson, Kristen Robertson and Nicholas Robertson; great-grandchildren Anastasia Ingoldby and Winnefred Zachary; and step-great-grandchildren Trent and Suzie Foster, Ethan and Isaac Foster.

A memorial service for Barbara Anderson will be held at a later date.

The Gazette-Democrat

112 Lafayette St.
Anna, Illinois 62906
Office Number: (618) 833-2158
Email: news@annanews.com

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