Barbara Ann (Montgomery Bradley) Jones was surrounded by family as she passed away the morning of June 7, 2022. She is finally free and has gone to rest after a long battle with cancer.
Barbara roared into this world on March 11, 1952, the second daughter of 5 children born to Corrie Delaney and Emmett Henderson Montgomery. Barbara was the middle child and acted accordingly! Her sisters joke about how she used to spank her dolls. Few would have guessed that she would grow up to become such a wonderful mother.
Born and raised Catholic, she attended St. Edward Elementary school where she became best friends forever with Joan Thoensen. Barbara did not want to attend an all-girls catholic high school, so she made a deal with her parents that she would try one year at Immaculate. If she did not like it, she could go to public school. She kept her promise and left Immaculate after her first year to attend and graduate from Rainier Beach High School. As a graduating senior, she received the coveted Max H. Block Human Relations Award, recognizing students who demonstrate outstanding conduct. Following high school, Barbara worked for and became a valued member of the City of Bellevue personnel and the Human Rights Commission in Oklahoma City. She also became a mother to her first-born daughter, Lena, and excelled at creating a home. Barbara met and married Raymond Bradley in 1975. Barbara followed her husband to Pasadena, California, where they had two more daughters, Teneshea and LaKesha. They then relocated to Oklahoma City where they spent most of their years together. They built a strong family network; overcoming their challenges to be reborn together at St. James Baptist Church in Spencer, Oklahoma. Always a leader, Barbara became a supervisor at the Renaissance Hotel, acting as a strong advocate for others. Raymond passed in 2003, and Barbara returned home to Seattle in 2004 to care for her ailing mother. It was here that she settled into her passion for taking care of others and reunited with her high school sweetheart, Douglas Jones. Almost 4 decades later their flame was rekindled; they married in 2007.
Barbara leaves a huge void in the hearts of her family and friends who always felt her love or were entertained by her funny sayings. Doug jokes that he could write an entire book of her sayings! Although she devoted her life as a caregiver, she was blessed to have Doug by her side to care for her through this battle, as only he could.
She was preceded in death by her parents Emmett and Delaney; her brother Edward Glenn Montgomery, and her former husband Raymond Bradley.
She is survived by her husband Douglas Jones, her children Raymond (Cheryll) Bradley, Dorla Bradley-Davis, Shelby (Ken) Owens, Lena (Frederic, Sr.) Cato, Teneshea Bradley, LaKesha(Modou) Nyang, Christina (Anthony) Simons, and Jana (Phillippe) Cook; her sisters Judith Montgomery Hightower (Lamar), Sandra Montgomery and Patricia (Darren) Fox. She also leaves behind twenty grandchildren and thirty great-grandchildren whom she loved so dearly, as well as a host of nieces, nephews and cousins.