Barbara Vaughan

Barbara Lou Vaughan, daughter of the late Robert and Elizabeth (Parker) Watson, was born February 14, 1945, in Willow Springs, Missouri, and departed this life September 22, 2019, at her home in Mountain Grove, Missouri. She was 74 years, 7 months, and 8 days of age.

Barb graduated from Joplin High School in 1963, and later graduated from nursing school as an LPN. Barb worked as a nurse for many years at Texas County Memorial Hospital, with some of her favorite work being a hospice nurse. She also worked in the Emergency Department at General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital. She was respected by her coworkers and loved by many of her patients.

Barb was united in marriage to Joe Vaughan on February 12, 1994. Barb and Joe also ran several businesses together over the years: farming, an over the road trucking company, and a dump trucking company, which she was still running until she died. She especially loved living on the farm and milking cows, bottle feeding the baby calves, and taking care of the beef cattle. She loved her cows so much that she even tried to give CPR to one of her Holstein calves, Big Mack, after he had choked.

She loved being in the water, whether it was at the ocean, Bull Shoals Lake in the summer, or at a swimming pool. She loved watching NFL football games, and especially loved watching her Green Bay Packers. At one point she had completed all the steps to get her private pilot’s license, with the exception of the final step – making her solo flight. She has now made that final flight and passed with flying colors. She is seeing sights more beautiful than any we will ever see on Earth, until we join her in Heaven. She loved her family, bragged on her grandchildren, and enjoyed spending time with her friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters, Mary Jo Watson and Linda Watson, and her brother, Jack Watson.

She will be profoundly missed and survived by her husband, Joe, of Mountain Grove; her children: Robert Custis (Tonya) of Mountain Grove, Suzanne Bradshaw (Joe) of Nixa, Jodi Vaughan Lopresto of Lexington, OK, and Christy Chyka (Philip) of Buffalo; her grandchildren: Taylor Custis, Nathanial Ford, Cody Clevenger, Blake Chyka, Sophia Bradshaw, Chloe Chyka, and Catherine Bradshaw; her siblings: Betty Jean Warden, Roberta Young, Carolyn Hirsch, Shirley Myres, Pat Barton, and Terry Watson, all whom love her dearly and will never forget her strength, tenacity, wit, charm, grace, and undying love and caring for them, and the care she gave others.