Barbara Renfro Joseph - Studio Artist

... born 1956 under sign of Scorpio to father LeRoy Renfro and mother Betty Marie Bain, studio artist Barbara Joseph passed away after a lifelong struggle with hypoxia, dyspnea, cystic bronchiectasis.

Miraculously having somehow survived a right-lower lung lobectomy, age 5, dearest Barbara graduated Mitchell High School, class of 1976, began her career in fashion merchandising as a window dresser at Casual Corner, Hibbard & Company Department Store, and Lee's Clothing Boutique in Colorado Springs.

At Black Angus restaurant, Barbara met Sam December 17th, 1981, and married, a year and a day later.

Westward migration to Buena Park, California in 1987, Barbara inked her graphic arts degree in record time. Armed her God given delicate touch, she subsequently excelled in retail advertising, national recognition and regional accolades heaped upon her in every decade she worked, for innovative, groundbreaking paste-up compositions, logos, and newspaper ads.

Barbara worked as a professional  studio artist for major publications, The Tehachapi Phone Book, Arnold Advertising, Trend Offset in Los Alamitos, the Gazette Telegraph in Colorado Springs, The Daily News in Woodland Hills, CA, and the Antelope Valley Press, Lancaster, CA. A died-in-the-wool 5-gen power-user spanning Macintosh OS-6 through Mac OS-10,  from Illustrator-88 to Photoshop to MultiAD Creator to DTI, from Aldus Pagemaker to Adobe InDESIGN, Barbara's career crested the apex of the great WYSIWYG desktop publishing revolution.

Multi-talented, self-taught cosmetologist, 41 years Barbara cut my hair.

Last of the deep-drawer artists, anything Barbara could do on an automated workstation she could do, manually. Depth, breadth and extent of her skill palette, from charcoal on velum to pen and ink, oil-on-canvas to sewing, textiles, fashion design, floral arrangements, Barbara delighted herself in the arts and crafts, and home economics. She loved entertaining, throwing big bashes, having the car guys over on track day.

One of my pals, peculiar knack for sizing people up said of her, "... Barbara can do it all, except one thing -- breathe."  The wee hour,  4th of June, 2022, oxygenation inexplicably plunging,  she could not breathe.

After a harrowing, gut wrenching, heartbreaking 17 day struggle, Barbara passed away of pulmonary failure in the intensive care unit at Antelope Valley Medical Center in Lancaster, California. Until death did we part, holding hands, Barbara is survived by sisters Connie and Carrol, brother Bart, and her husband of 39 years, 6 months, 3 days.

Official time of death, the 21st of June, 2022, 2:01 p.m., it is upon the summer solstice dearest Barbara's voyage passes into the great beyond, midpoint along the waning moon, longest day of the year - asj.

___________________________________________________________

For Barbara, the woman I loved:

https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Thanks for letting me be your husband.  I miss you something awful -

Goodbye,

~ S a m u e l

//////////////////////////(e.g., 2022.06.26; Haunted Heart, Jo Stafford)///

ps - ... 2025.08.09, ... hey there, Barb J! Thousand thanks, visiting me the other night, in my dreams! Missing you a ton, hope you know!  Hurts, something awful, you being gone. Sure wished you'd come back, every night! Super nice, seeing you, again - Samuel.

///////////////////////////////////

Send to someone

Share this obituary with others

https://everloved.com/life-of/barbara-joseph/obituary/

Copy