Barbara Jean (Overton) Booth

The family of Barbara Jean Booth is happy to announce her home going on Wednesday morning, February 16, 2022.  She is with her beloved Jesus whom she loved and worshiped.  Barbara was born on October 4, 1939, at her home in the Prairie Valley community near Whitney, Texas.  Her parents were the late Fred Buren Overton, and the late Kate Isabel Grisham Overton.

Barbara started Prairie Valley School at age 5 because school started in October after the crops were harvested.  Her mother was her teacher.  In 1949, Prairie Valley consolidated with Whitney school.  In high school, she was active in journalism and drama activities.  She graduated in 1957 as salutatorian.  She went to Texas Woman’s University in Denton where she was a reporter for campus newspaper, page editor and section editor for the campus yearbook.  She was in several theater productions and worked in the newspaper print shop for 19 dollars a month.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1960.

Shortly before graduation, she married Chester Eli Booth on April 15, 1960.  The newlyweds moved to College Station where Chester earned a master’s degree from Texas A&M.  The couple then moved to Axtell where she worked as a reporter for the Waco Tribune-Herald while Chester taught vocation agriculture classes at Axtell school.  In 1969, the couple and their two children, Jean Ann and Joe, bought the Grisham farm near the Whitney dam and moved back to Whitney.  She was director of the Community Center kindergarten for a year before going back to college.  She taught kindergarten at Aquilla for six years.  She taught kindergarten at Whitney for eleven years and at Blum for three years.  She retired in 1994.

The Booth family joined First Baptist Church in Whitney in 1969 where Barbara was a Sunday School teacher, served on various committees, director of In-Reach visitation, Choir member, and a soloist.

After a vacation time when she “went around visiting my grandbabies”, she began traveling with her husband building churches with Texas Baptist Men Retiree (Church) Builders where she was the choir director for the women’s group.

Those left to celebrate her memory are her husband, daughter Jean Ann Lindsay and husband, Mike, of Lorena, son Joe Booth and wife, Brooke, of Whitney.  Grandchildren Jeremy Lindsay and wife Christine of Hewitt, Lauren Girsh and husband, Justin, of Whitney.  Eli Booth and wife Amelia of Corpus Christi, Molly Booth of College Station, and Caleb Booth and wife Chelsey of Corpus Christi.  Great-grandchildren Abbey Jo, Conner, Cayden, and Addysen of Whitney and Ethan and Alyssa of Hewitt along with a host of cousins, a church family, and many TBM friends.

Barbara chose to live her life through her family and her church.

Funeral services are scheduled for 10:30 am Tuesday, February 22, 2022, at Marshall and Marshall Funeral Directors Chapel in Whitney with burial to follow at Prairie Valley Cemetery in Prairie Valley, TX.  A visitation will be held Monday, February 21, 2022, from 6:00-8:00 P.M. at Marshall and Marshall Funeral Directors Chapel in Whitney, TX.