Janet Elaine (Bizek) Barker, 90, of Newton, Kansas, passed away on Tuesday, January 14, 2020.
“Elaine” was born on the family farm at rural Timken, Rush County, Kansas, on August 15, 1929 to Charles James Bizek and Edith Lillian Seelye Bizek.
She graduated from La Crosse High School, La Crosse, Kansas, in 1947 and from Salt City Business College in Hutchinson, Kansas. Elaine brought her gifts of a positive outlook, cheerful disposition, diligence, respect for authority, resilience in the face of adversity, attention to detail and rural farming values into all aspects of life including the workplace. While attending business college she earned spending money by grading papers for instructors. Later jobs in La Crosse, Kansas, and Wichita, Kansas, included working as a secretary or executive assistant for an abstract company, county attorney, insurance, and oil companies.
Following her marriage to Victor G. Barker and the arrival of children, Elaine worked as a homemaker and supported her husband’s career through a number of relocations. She told family that she placed her trust in Jesus during a period of life-threatening illness in her 20s. She demonstrated her simple faith in her savior by loving her neighbors through actions and service.
When her marriage ended, she honed her skills and returned to the workforce. In 1987 Elaine moved to Topeka, Kansas, to be near family where she found contentment in useful work, relationships with co-workers and helping her family. She was a joy filled volunteer in her grandkids’ lunchroom, classrooms and sometimes as a last minute substitute cub scout den leader. Elaine retired from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. As a parting gift her co-workers compiled a cookbook filled with her recipes they collected over the years from the many cookies, cakes, casseroles and dishes of all kinds she brought to work for them to share. Her gift of hospitality and love of meeting, feeding and talking to people from all walks of life led to her next employment as a product demonstrator for Sam’s Club where she worked until she was 87. Elaine moved to Newton, Kansas, in 2017 to be closer to family including her much loved great granddaughter. She lived independently and continued to enjoy hosting her extended family and plying them with her signature baked goods including her chocolate chip cookies until her final hospitalization in December, 2019.
Elaine was preceded in death by her parents; sisters, Thelma Jean Bizek, Sherla Lee Furgason, and Patricia J. Raikes; and a grandson, Blake D. Andrews.
She will be lovingly remembered and missed by survivors which include siblings, Clifford C. Bizek, Dallas, Texas, and Charlotte I. Biays, Timken, Kansas; children, Susan Barker Andrews, Fernley, Nevada, and David S. Barker and daughter-in-law, Betsy Barker, Elko, Nevada; grandson, Grant D. Andrews; great-granddaughter, Ambrielle Andrews; step grandson and granddaughter, Damian Branting and Melanie Branting; and five nieces and two nephews.
Visitation will be Friday, January 24, 2020, from 9:30 A.M. to 10:20 A.M. at the Janousek Funeral Home, La Crosse, Kansas.
Funeral service will be Friday, January 24, 2020, at 10:30 A.M. at the Janousek Funeral Home, La Crosse, Kansas, with Matt Jackson officiating. Interment will be in the La Crosse City Cemetery, La Crosse, Kansas.
In lieu of flowers or plants, the family suggests memorial donations to the Bohemian National Cemetery, Timken, Kansas, in care of the funeral home.
Condolences or remembrances may be left for the family at www.charterfunerals.com/locations/janousek-lacrosse.php.
Arrangements were by Janousek Funeral Home, 719 Pine Street, P O Box 550, La Crosse, Kansas 67548, 785/222-2517.