Barbara Bri Schon, 95, of 500 5th Ave. S.W., Altoona, Iowa passed away on Monday, July 27, 2020 at Parkridge Specialty Care Center in Pleasant Hill, Iowa.
Barbara was born the daughter of Joseph Richard and Caroline Donegan Richard in rural Marshall County on September 6, 1924. She graduated from Melbourne High School in 1942. Her first work outside the home was “doing man’s work” loading and unloading trucks for the local produce company in Marshalltown, Nash Finch & Co., since Uncle Sam had taken many of the local men off to WWII. She moved to Des Moines in 1947 to take a job at the C.C. Taft Company which was a subsidiary of the Thriftway (Safeway) Grocery stores. She worked at Thriftway as their bookkeeper for fifteen years. Then she joined Dixon’s Wholesale Meats as their bookkeeper until her retirement in 1987.
On January 10, 1953, she married Sil Schon in Haverhill, Iowa and started their new life together in a small apartment near downtown Des Moines where they both worked. On February 23, 1954 Barbara gave birth to their only child, Brian Keith Schon. The family moved to Urbandale in 1973 and to Pleasant Hill twelve years later. With the death of her husband in 1999, Barb moved to a smaller home in Altoona and was kept busy with gardening, visiting with neighbors, kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. Barbara was a member of the SS John & Paul Parish in Altoona, Iowa.
Remaining to cherish her memory is her son, Brian (Janet) Schon of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, grandchildren, Eric (Brittany) Glassell of Pleasant Hill, Iowa and Amy (Jeremy) Snell of Fairborn, Ohio and five great-grandchildren. Also mourning her loss are half-sisters Madalyn Stone of Ankeny, Iowa, Mary Kay (John) Swift of Scottsdale, Arizona, half-brother John (Myrna) Richard of Cave Creek, Arizona and sister-in-law Marge Richard of Scottsdale, Arizona. With her passing, Barbara rejoins her parents, husband, sister Marian Richard, brothers Joseph and Maurice and half-brother, Charles who proceeded her in death.
A remembrance of her life and mass will be held on Friday, July 31 at Merle Hay Funeral Home at Chapel Hill Gardens, 4400 Merle Hay Road in Des Moines, Iowa with visitation beginning at 10:00 a.m. and a funeral mass at 11:00 a.m. with internment in the adjoining Chapel Hill Gardens. Memorials can be made to Parkridge Specialty Care, 5800 N.E. 12th Avenue, Pleasant Hill, Iowa 50327.
