Barbara Ann Winchester was born Nov 2, 1932 and passed away Aug 20, 2020. She is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 25 years, Lloyd Winchester, parents Theodore and Ann Metzger and both brothers, Robert “Bob” and Paul Metzger.
She is survived by her daughter Cynthia Turner Hirsh of Los Angeles California and her son Theodore “Teddy” Hirsh, and her second daughter, Barbara “Bobbi” Turner Smith, who resides in Dallas Texas.
Mom was born and and raised in St Louis MO until June of 1964 when she divorced George Turner Jr and moved us to Irving Texas where relatives lived. Mom met Lloyd Winchester Jr. through mutual friends and three years later, in 1967, they married.
Mom was always a hardworking, industrious person. She worked as a teenager at the local phone company and dress shops and, as a woman, she earned college credits and worked in real estate before becoming employed by McGraw Hill. At first, she was an office secretary and, over time, rising to become an industry reporter. Her intelligence, personality, great communication skills and beauty, enabled her to successfully navigate a man’s world of architects, engineers and construction developers to gain insight and write articles about large commercial developments around Dallas Ft Worth.
Mom was a great cook, known for her fried chicken and cream gravy, her little pizza appetizers, and potato pancakes. Much of what she learned about cooking was through her mother-in-law, but she also took on old family recipes of her own mother and often made them better.
Outside the home, mom was a long term and very active member of AMBUCS and served as its President, when it was an all woman’s club, helping to raise lots of money to purchase the specialized bikes for the disabled kids who they served. She and Lloyd were also immersed in all the activities of the Irving Elks Lodge and the Shriners. Mom and Lloyd had a happy, busy life together. They had many friends, hosted and joined in on lots of social activities, they loved to travel and to dance! Oh, they loved to dance!
They worked hard to retire early and then moved to Rancho Viejo in south Texas. Lloyd taught mom to golf and they built a whole new community of friends. With Lloyd’s death in 1992, she found a new sense of independence, becoming a member of the volunteer fire department there and had several funny stories about responding to fires that were nearly out by the time she got her gear on! She also played golf in several leagues and became a low-handicap golfer, joining a Pro-Am tour with friends to New Zealand and did very well!
Mom moved back to her beloved Irving in 2000 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was able to overcome that health problem as she did every obstacle in life: through faith, diligence and a “Can do” attitude. She moved to Denver for two years to live near her daughter Bobbi and was loved by many members of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Rockies but returned to Irving when the recession hit in 2008.
She became close and enjoyed several years together with Charlie Stalcup until 2019 when mom moved into assisted living at The Villages of Dallas.
Upon her death, mom’s body was donated to UT Southwest for research. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Alzheimers’s Prevention Foundation by clicking the link below or to Plymouth Park Methodist Church, her longtime home church in Irving
by clicking here