Jay Vance Barker was born July 29, 1936, in Foard County, Texas. His
parents, J.M. and Sara Ethel (Johnson) Barker, were farmers and custom
harvesters.
Jay attended Southwestern Bible College in
Waxahachie, Texas, where he met and married Corine Delores Edwards. The
two began their ministry lives in Spearman, Texas, pastoring Spearman
First Assembly of God Church. In 1965, the family moved to Tulsa,
Oklahoma, where Jay began working
for the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. Jay worked for the
association as a Regional Representative until 1986, traveling much of
the Southern United States.
In 1968, Jay earned a Private Pilot’s
License and began a love affair with aviation, a fascination of his
since boyhood. Throughout Jay’s fifty-year experiences with civil
aviation, he earned every FAA certification available to a pilot but
one. Jay enjoyed flying as a second career, and later as a primary
career, until November 2018. He logged over 35,000 hours of flight time
as a pilot and flight instructor in Single Engine, Multi-Engine,
instrument instruction, Airline Transport Pilot, and Sea Plane among
others. Jay finished out his 20-year full-time flying career as a
pipeline patrol pilot. Jay taught most of his family members to fly,
including his father, brother and son.
Jay met and married
KayLynn Philip during their work together as pipeline pilots. The two
shared common interests of farming and ranching, aviation, ocean
cruising, horseback riding and travel. While the two never shared a
common household; Jay on the family farm in Texas and KayLynn on the
Philip Ranch in Kansas, they shared a uniquely successful marriage with
daily electronic contact and years of commuting between both states. The
arrangement served them well!
Moving back to hometown Crowell,
Texas, in 1998 was a lifelong goal. He has since enjoyed the rural
lifestyle and lived the life of which he dreamed for many years.
He
is survived by wife, KayLynn Philip of Hays, KS; brother, Dwight Keaton
(Sue) Barker of Lakewood, CO; son Vick, daughter-in-law Coleen, and
grandson Jarod, of Jenks, OK.
Jay Vance Barker passed to Heaven
peacefully in Crowell Nursing Center on Sunday, January 24, 2021, during
rehabilitation following a sudden critical illness. Jay’s final resting
place will be among the trees of the Barker Home Place near the burial
site of his beloved horse, Driftwood. His desire was to share an
intimate gathering of friends and family upon the scattering of his urn,
which has yet to be scheduled.
Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Lowell-Tims Funeral Home and Crematory, Altus, Oklahoma.