Barbara Parker

Barbara Louise Parker of Shawnee, Kansas passed away in the early morning on Friday, October 11, 2024.

She was born in 1952 in Pasadena, California to parents Mary and Vivian. Her father passed away when she was nine years old, and Barbara was raised by her mother in Los Angeles, California, and later Kearney, Nebraska. Barbara graduated from the University of Nebraska and University of Kansas, eventually earning a Masters’ Degree as a Certified Nurse Practitioner and later graduated from the first class of Certified Nurse Midwives from the University of Kansas.

The number of lives Barbara touched throughout the course of her 71 years on this Earth is immeasurable. She not only helped to bring hundreds of children into the world through her work in labor and delivery rooms as a Registered Nurse, but additionally as a midwife she performed thousands of successful births for women across Kansas and Illinois. Barbara was instrumental to thousands of men and women from across the spectrum of life in becoming mothers and fathers themselves.

Barbara mainly practiced midwifery in Lawrence, KS and Rockford, IL during her long career. She would later become a Professor in the Certified Nurse Midwifery Program at the University of Kansas Medical Center, the same program she was in the inaugural graduating class. She continued to devote herself to the Midwifery Program, helping to drive it to among the top graduate programs in the country before her retirement in 2019.

The remnant of Barbara’s spirit, love, and brilliance over the last seven decades echoes in perpetuity in the form of skilled teachers, nurses, midwives, doctors, paramedics, firemen, police officers, and countless others that she mentored and guided through education, empathy, and life itself. In addition, the children she helped bring into this world have gone on to do all kinds of incredible things, touching even more lives of their own, and so forth into eternity.

Barbara helped to make this world better through love, compassion, and grace. She touched one life at a time with an incredible energy and passion, bringing happiness and joy to family, friends, and strangers alike. Her amazing spirit is encompassed within her family and friends, who feel fortunate to have been threads in the rich tapestry of Barbara’s life.

Barbara is survived by her eldest son, Erik and wife, Eunice, daughter Elinor, youngest son Ethan and wife, Bethany, and three grandchildren: Arya, Grayson, and Aiden.

Her family and friends will celebrate her and her life and will remember her.

A Celebration of Barbara's Life will happen on October 19, 2024 at Shelter 7 at Shawnee Mission Park from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Click Here to view for more information. 

The family requests that instead of flowers, people make donations in Barbara's name to Planned Parenthood Great Plains  and the Great Plains SPCA.