Barbara Ringgold

Barbara June Ringgold, age 86, died peacefully Friday, June 10, 2016, at St. Luke's Hospital in Boise, Idaho, two days short of her 87th birthday. A viewing will be held from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m., on Friday, June 17, 2016, and funeral services will begin at 11 a.m., all at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel, in Mountain Home.

Barbara June Kerr was born June 12, 1929, in Aberdeen, S.D., to Robert J. Kerr and Mary Rosette Smith Kerr. The family eventually moved to Long Beach, Calif., where Barb graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School.

After training as a Registered Nurse at Nebraska Methodist Hospital in Omaha, Neb., she married William Paul Ringgold on May 19, 1951, and lived in Long Beach, Calif. Barb went to work at Seaside Hospital in Long Beach, where daughter Paula Kaye was born in May 1952.

The family moved to Mountain Home in about 1955. Their son, Robert Allen (Bob), was born in 1956, and another daughter, Amy B., in 1964. Barb worked for the Mountain Home Police Department and the school district before being employed at the Elmore Memorial Hospital for many, many years.

She was a lifetime member of the Guiding Star Rebekah Lodge #4 and served her community for 60 years. She retired from Elmore Memorial Hospital in 1995 after 35 years in nursing.

Barbara was preceded in death by her husband, Paul Ringgold of Mountain Home; sister Beverly Janet Kerr Close of Arvada, Colo.; and grandson Jason Paul Allen of Salem, Ore.

She is survived by her daughter, Paula Allen of Salem, Ore.; son Robert Ringgold of Mountain Home; daughter Amy Arnold of Simpsonville, S.C.; niece Sharon Coons of Littleton, Colo.; nephew Stephen Close also of Colorado; grandsons Nathan Allen of Keizer, Ore., and Aaron Arnold of Simpsonville, S.C.; granddaughters Amanda Harris and Alicia Arnold of Simpsonville, S.C.; and three great-grandsons and three great-granddaughters.

Barbara was much loved by her family and all who knew her. She will be greatly missed.