Barbara Searight

Barbara Searight

July 10, 1938 - September 4, 2019

Barbara Jeannette Searight was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, to Dorothy Jeannette and Emil Theodore Latsch. She graduated York High School in 1956 and attended Elmhurst College. She married William Searight on November 21, 1959, and together they had three children: Victoria Jean, Jonathan Theodore and Ann Elizabeth.

Barbara worked tirelessly wherever she was, as picture lady for her children’s classrooms, as a Sunday school director at Unity of Oak Park, as a legal secretary, executive assistant and church secretary. She regularly volunteered to support her community and as a member of the Perkasie, Pennsylvania, Sesquicentennial planning committee she arranged for train service from Perkasie to Quakertown, Pennsylvania.

She received a personal letter of appreciation from Vice President Richard Nixon for her organizing efforts on behalf of the 1960 Republican Convention, where he was nominated for president.

Later in life, Barbara received her certification in Historic Preservation and achieved her certification in the Penn State Extension Master Gardener program. Their home in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, was a paradise of flowers and trees, and today the hundreds of daffodils they planted still bloom there each spring.

In 2011, Barbara was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare disease that affects one’s ability to walk, focus and swallow. Barbara and Bill fought the onset of each symptom with courage, and continued to travel and enjoy the things that mattered most. Together, they traveled to more than a dozen countries and visited nearly every state.

Barbara is survived by her devoted husband, William, their three children, their daughter-in-law Elizabeth, their son-in-law Robert and their son-in-law Anthony, and their 12 grandchildren: Patrick, William, Elliot, Brittany, Michael, Jennifer, Jessica, Drake, Katherine, Amelia, Corinne and Caroline.

Memorial service will be 3:00 p.m., Sunday, September 8, 2019, at Countryside Funeral Home, Anthony, FL.  Graveside service will follow at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, Gainesville, FL at 4:30 p.m.