Eleanor Barkley

Eleanor T Barkley--84 Eleanor Barkley passed away of Alzheimer’s on November 20, 2015 with family by her side. Eleanor was born in Brooklyn NY on August 4th, 1931. She was the only child of John and Helen Thee who had emigrated separately from different parts of Germany in the late 20’s seeking a better life in the US. At the time her parents owned a small delicatessen and bakery. As WWII was approaching the family moved to Chicago and their bakery prospered when they were awarded a military contract to supply cookies included in the K rations for the military. In less than three years their small bakery had expanded to include three factories across the United States. To this day, you can find their original recipe sugar cookies sold in round Blue Tin containers at retailers everywhere, predominately at Christmas time, under the name of Royal Dansk. Eleanor graduated from high school at the age of 17 and entered DePauw University in 1948 where she became the first female to graduate with an economics degree. She met her future husband, Stanley Barkley, in a class called “Marriage and the Family” to which he was flunking. She must have taught him something because they spent 52 years together before Stanley passed away in 2005. Their first year of marriage was spent living at Ft. Carson in Colorado where Stanley was stationed in the Army during the Korean War. Following the war, they moved to Bloomfield Indiana were they raised three boys. While in Bloomfield, she became a teacher at various schools before starting a family. However, she was not going to let her business degree go to waste. She went on to co-own and manage multiple businesses with Stanley who was a serial entrepreneur, succeeding in a few things and failing at others. They began to obtain and build apartment complexes in the state of Washington, Texas, and Bloomington. During the next four decades, they would go on to own multiple projects under the name of Land Lady Apartments to which she managed and was most proud thereof. Eleanor was a very civic minded individual and served on multiple boards over the years. She and Stanley were instrumental in their support of Shawnee Summer Theater in Bloomfield being charter board members. She was heavily involved in Tri-Kappa and sang in the choir at the First Baptist Church. She was very proud of having served on the board which designed and built the First Baptist Church in 1974. She and her husband were very active in the Navy League where Stanley was the President thereof in 1970. The Navy League was a lobbying group in Washington DC and its work insured the viability of military installations across the US, Crane most importantly to them. She and her husband loved to travel and they visited six of the seven continents across the world. However, what she loved most was taking golf trips with their friends from Bloomfield and snow skiing with friends and family in Colorado. She was a hard working woman who was never afraid to roll up her sleeves and dig in the dirt with anyone to get the job done. She was regarded by all as an “Elegant and Classy Lady” who cared for others and saw the best in everyone. Finally, she was a wonderful role model and the best mother a child could ask for. She will be missed by all that knew her and she is survived by her three children, Dr. Craig and Sandy Barkley of Clearwater Florida and their children Brandon and Alexandra; Brad and Alejandra Barkley of Noblesville and his children Nicholas and Allison, and Dr. Julie Hirsch of Lebanon; Mark and Heather Barkley of Bloomington and their children Dylan, Haley, and Chad and his wife Kelly, and their children, Daniel, Cameron, and Khloe; and a host of cousins, nieces and nephews from Germany. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations are made to the Alzheimer’s Association or the First Baptist Church Food pantry. A celebration of life will be held Saturday January 9th at the First Baptist Church in Bloomfield at 2:30pm.

Eleanor Barkley

August 4, 1931 - November 20, 2015