Dolly Barr

Dolly (Shook) Barr was born May 22, 1934 when the family was living in a dugout in Elmwood, OK in the Oklahoma panhandle to Vernon and Alice (Kachel) Shook. She was joining older sisters Jean and Verna Faye “Bum.” The next year the three sisters were joined by their only brother, Sheldon. Vernon was a farmer all through the dust bowl years out there on the Oklahoma prairie when being a farmer didn’t guarantee much of a living for a man with a wife and four children.

When the children were old enough to start school, the family moved into Beaver, OK, where all the children started kindergarten and finished high school. Dolly was an active member of the Beaver Christian Church where Dean Barr was the minister during her high school years. Dolly took piano lessons and learned to play in those years, something she used throughout her adult years to serve the Lord in many different churches. After high school graduation, she attended Midwest Christian College in Oklahoma City for one semester but chose to go back to the Panhandle and attend Panhandle A & M, as Panhandle University was known then. She participated on the sharpshooting team, earning her national qualification as a sharpshooter with a rifle. She graduated with a business degree in 1956.

In August of 1956, she married Bob Barr, son of her high school minister. He had just graduated from Midwest Christian College, and they began what was to be a lifetime of ministry for their Lord. Their first home and Bob’s first ministry was in Tulsa OK where Dolly worked as a secretary for a law firm and from there, they moved back west to Shattuck, OK where they were living when their first daughter, Robin, was born in Perryton TX in 1958. Bob decided to go to graduate school to get his Master’s degree, so they moved to Lincoln IL for him to attend Lincoln Christian College and Seminary. After his graduation, they moved to Arlington SD for Bob to take over a two-charge ministry serving both the Arlington and Preston Township Christian churches. While living in Arlington, son Regan was born in 1961 and daughter Randee was born in 1962 in Brookings, SD. It was here that Dolly began her teaching career when a kindergarten teacher was needed, and she was asked because she had a college degree. She found that she loved teaching and that was her career for the rest of her life.

The family moved to Huron SD. In 1966 for Bob to serve as President of Dakota Bible College where Mom taught English, typing, and shorthand. The final member of the family, Jill, was born in Huron in 1967.

In 1968, the family moved to Tinley Park, IL where Bob began preaching at Tinley Park Church of Christ and Dolly began teaching kindergarten again. At one point, she was taking classes from three different colleges to obtain all her credentials. She was also playing the piano at the church, teaching Sunday School, and raising her four children.

In 1971, the family moved to Moore, Ok for Bob to begin teaching at Midwest Christian College in Oklahoma City. Dolly got a job teaching 5th grade at Fairview Elementary in the Moore Public Schools and eventually moved to a special project called STAY where she taught young 

elementary students who were having trouble with math. She was awarded Teacher of the Year by the school district while teacher at Project Stay. While living in Moore, she earned her Master’s in Education from Central State University in Edmond, OK, driving up to Edmond several nights a week to take classes.

When Bob began preaching at the Heritage Christian Church in El Reno, OK the family moved to El Reno. Dolly became the Director of Special Education for Yukon Public Schools where she stayed until her retirement.

Bob and Dolly moved back to Oklahoma City when Bob became the chaplain at Integris Southwest hospital and there they lived until Bob’s death in 2008. Bob had been diagnosed with Frontal Lobe Dementia in 2002, a rare form of dementia, and Dolly took care of him throughout his illness, never moving him into a facility and giving him all the love and attention that she could. She always told her children that he was the best man that they would ever know and she was his loving and devoted wife until the end.

After Bob’s death, Dolly moved to Montrose CO to be near Robin and to be in the Rocky Mountains that she loved. She lived there until 2020 when she moved to Parsons, KS where Randee lived and the lower altitude made breathing easier. She passed away August 13, 2026.

Dolly survived the Dust Bowl days in Oklahoma, two bouts of cancer, and the extended illness of her husband. She loved and served the Lord all her life. She particularly loved to hear from missionaries when they would come to the church to speak and financially supported a number of missionaries throughout her life. She used her musical and teaching talents for the Lord whenever she was able.

Travel was one of her other loves. The family vacationed every summer in the homemade trailer that Bob had built and they took the kids all over the US in that trailer. Eventually, Dolly had been to almost every state including Alaska and Hawaii. She also visited Israel, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Ireland, Italy, Czech Republic, Canada, and Switzerland.

She was proceeded in death by her husband Bob, her parents, Vernon and Alice, her sister Verna Faye, her brother Sheldon, and one granddaughter, Rachel Velasquez. She is survived by one sister, Jean Phillips of Oklahoma City, daughter Robin and her husband Steve Woodstock of Blanchard OK, son Regan and his wife Amy of Lobelville, TN, daughter Randee and her husband Doug Baty of Parsons, KS, and daughter Jill and her husband Steve Summers of Mustang, OK. as well as 10 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. Her tombstone stands in Pioneer Cemetery in Beaver, Oklahoma, among her husband, parents, and generations of family, where the Oklahoma prairie stretches wide and the wind she loved perpetually moves the beautiful sea of grass. 

Memorial services will be held at a later date. Inurnment will be in the Pioneer Cemetery at Beaver, OK. Memorials are suggested to the Westside Christian Church and may be left at or mailed to the CARSON-WALL FUNERAL HOME, P.O. Box 942, Parsons, KS 67357. Online condolences may be left at www.wallfuneralservices.com.