Charles Lee Barr, 100, died on June 10, 2024, in Lutz, Florida. Dad will be remembered for his musical talent and sense of humor. The morning of his death, he told the nurse that he injured his leg learning to tap dance.
Charles was born Jan. 6, 1924, in Bruceville, Indiana, to Charles H. and Alice Barr, and graduated from Bruceville High School in 1942. He served in the Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1945 as a B24 navigator, flying 24 bombing missions in WWII. His rank upon discharge was 2nd lieutenant. He received the Air Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal.
Charles received a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 1947. While at I.U., he played trumpet in the Marching 100 band and was vice president of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
Charles worked for Studebaker from 1949 to 1952, before purchasing Barr’s Feed and Supply in Ossian, which he ran from 1952 to 1958. He served as Clerk-Treasurer of Ossian for 22 years, never losing an election. (He claims no one else ever wanted the job.) Charles also owned his own accounting business, and probably was one of the first to start a home office. He retired in 1990. Charles was an active member of Ossian Presbyterian Church in Ossian, and Trinity Presbyterian Church in Venice, Florida, and was a valued member of both churches’ choirs.
He met his wife Helen Lenoir Morris while attending I.U. They married in 1948 and remained committed until her death in 2011. They had five children, Sally (Ron) Ebest of St. Louis, Tom (April) of Nashville, Indiana, Mary (Bill) Goral of Nashville, Indiana, Linda (Fraser) Cobbe of Temple Terrace, Flordia, and Susan (Woodie) of Ashland, Oregon; nine grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.
They lived in Atlanta, South Bend, and Ossian. Charley and Helen became Florida snowbirds in 1990, and permanent residents of Venice, Florida, in 2004. He moved to an assisted living facility in Lutz, Florida, in 2017, to be near his youngest daughter and granddaughter, and their families. National Cremation and Burial Society Ruskin.