Beulah "Bea" Barnes' Obituary
Beulah (BEA) Adair Thomas Barnes was born in Hamilton, Mississippi on October 17, 1927 to Trice and Francis Adair and died at the age of 90 on September 24, 2018 after a short illness. She was the third of six children. She was preceded in death by her parents and sisters, Ruth, Mary, and Doris and survived by a sister Ellen and a brother John. She graduated from Hamilton High School, came to Memphis in 1945 and entered the University of Tennessee School of Nursing as part of the United States Nurse Cadet Corp. After graduating as a Registered Nurse in 1948, she began her career with Semmes-Murphy Clinic as an office and procedure nurse. In 1979, she worked with Dr. James Robertson as a study coordinator with the University of Tennessee Department of Neurosurgery and the National Institute of Health Study on Brain Tumor research and treatment modalities. She later worked for St. Francis Hospital as an oncology nurse, retiring in 1992. She married John D. Thomas in 1951 and raised two sons, Dr. John Daniel Thomas Jr. (Anne) of Collierville, TN and Robert Neal Thomas (Shelly) of Duluth, Georgia. The family attended Union Avenue and Wooddale Churches of Christ. In 1983, her husband, John, passed away. In 1992, she married Roy A. Barnes of Memphis. They moved to Kirby Pines Retirement Community in 2008 where she was very active in many areas. Roy passed away in 2016. Bea was a member of the Germantown Church of Christ at the time of her death. She was blessed with four grandchildren, Kyle Thomas, Kelsi (Thomas) Lane, Meredith (Thomas) Combs, Olivia (Thomas) Whiting, and one great grandson, Grey Thomas Combs. The family will receive friends at 10 a.m. and funeral services will begin at 11:30 a.m., Friday, September 28 at Memorial Park Funeral Home on Poplar Avenue. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation be made to the Germantown Church of Christ Mission Fund.Her tribute slideshow may be viewed here: https://www.tributeslides.com/tributes/show/8QQN576H9BXL7KSMArrangements have been entrusted to Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery, 5668 Poplar Ave., Memphis, TN 38119 (901) 767-8930. “Celebrating Life… Behind the Stone Wall”.
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