Barbara Llewellyn

Barbara Myrtle Llewellyn unexpectedly passed to the other side in her apartment March 21, 2019.

She was the youngest of four and the only daughter born January 25, 1932 to Sidney M. Fellows and Barbara M. (Mertl) Fellows in Saginaw, Michigan. She was lovingly referred to as Squirt by her family. After graduating from Handy High School in Bay City, Michigan, she joined the Army during the Korean War. While stationed at the 361st (8167th) Station Hospital on the Sumida River in Tokyo, Japan, love blossomed between her and a handsome fellow X-ray technician, John Llewellyn, on the hospital roof under a spray of fireworks against the Tokyo night sky. They were married in Tokyo on June 21, 1952.

Upon discharge from the Army, she and her husband made their home in Bay City, Michigan as John completed his education to become a weather man. Shortly after, John came home and informed her to pack up the kids because, unbeknownst to her, he applied for and got the job as a weather man at a small outpost in Point Barrow, Alaska where the government was sending husband and wife teams to man small weather stations. This city born and raised girl had a crash course in meteorology 101 so she could take her shift in the weather station at the top of the world. The year was 1955 and Alaska was still a territory. She traded in her saddle shoes for mukluks and Inuit parka. It was the place of the midnight sun, walrus hunts, and a welcoming native first peoples, earning it the distinction of being the favorite of all the places she had lived during her life. This was the start of a lengthy career which would take them to different homes in Yakutat, Annette Island, AK; Medford, OR; Missoula, MT; and Bay City, MI. Her family eventually landed in the small logging community of McCleary, WA which was a short drive from the weather bureau in Tumwater where John finished out his career. It was here she partnered with her husband on a small gentleman's farm, putting up the fare from his large organic gardens and cooking delectable meals of hand raised rabbits, chickens, goats, and even a pig. She loved nothing more than baking and sharing the old Hungarian family recipes of lard rolls, cakes, cookies, and pies which made us all fat.

She was apt with a wooden spoon, whether it was for stirring a pot or warming the bottom of a wayward child. She taught her children how to clean leaf lard for pastry use and how to properly stretch strudel dough across a moist table cloth to make her grandma's apple strudel. She learned the art of spinning wool, basket, loom, card and inkle weaving, being very proud to work on the handmade floor loom her son Chris built for her while he was in high school. No project was too daunting for her, be it putting away log truck loads of wood for their wood furnace for the winter or building a garage.

In 1988 she and John made the high desert community of Ellensburg, WA their home, finding its climate conducive to her ailing lungs. It was here that she could be found giving public demonstrations of the ancient art of bobbin lace, also called pillow lace. She was the grandma that loved to play on the floor or crawl into the cramped straw bale forts with her grandchildren.

No one was safe from her unique sense of humor which her husband referred to as "that damned Fellows' humor" which she proudly passed on to each of her children. It was at the local Senior Center that Barbara found a home among an equally unique group of lady artists who met weekly over crafts and jokes creating a lifelong relationship with her quirky friend Cindy Deck whom she shared with her family, whom her daughter refers to as her sister from another mother. . . and father. She loved the Lord and in these last few years she glowed with His joy everywhere she went. She loved to laugh. We will miss you, mom.

She was predeceased by her husband of 63 years, two brothers, and her parents. Surviving are her brother Harold M. (Charlotte) Fellows of Grand Haven, Michigan; sons, Michael (Casey) Llewellyn of Bremerton, Washington, Christopher (Sue Ann) Llewellyn of Creswell, Oregon; and daughter, Bethany (Robert) Paul of Ellensburg, Washington; grandchildren Rosie Llewellyn; Ryan and Nate Snell; James, Samuel, Isaac Llewellyn; Hannah (Andrew) Wigton; Glenn and Dale Paul; five great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers we would ask that donations be made to Naomi's Hope, 1201 Umptanum Road, Ellensburg, WA 98926.

A celebration of life was held on for May 4, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. at Mercer Creek Church, 1407 North B Street, Ellensburg, Washington.