Barbara Kaufmann, formerly of Wilton, passed away peacefully at home in Rockledge, Fla., on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. A graveside service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 12, at Oakdale Cemetery, Wilton. Online condolences may be left at www.bentleyfuneralhome.com.
Barbara Ann Winslow was born on July 23, 1934, the daughter of John Winslow and Pauline Kuhlenbeck. She graduated from Wapello High School.
On June 20, 1955, Barbara married Theodore Kaufmann at the Kaufmann family home. Barbara worked for the phone company in Iowa before moving to Florida with her husband, Ted, who was an electronic technical specialist at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, formerly known as Cape Kennedy on the Space Coast of Florida in the beginning years of the space program.
Barbara transferred to continue working for the phone company in Florida before deciding to leave her job to raise her two sons.
Barbara was a devoted mother and wife. She was very involved and active in the Boy Scouts as a scout mom and den mother while her sons were in scouting.
She loved traveling with her family, driving from coast to coast, visiting much of the United States several times. The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, the Redwood Forest and the Painted Desert were just some of the places of note that she and her family visited during their cross-country family trips.
Barbara and Ted took yearly trips down to the Florida Keys, where Ted loved to go diving and spear fishing with their sons.
Barbara was very fond of cruise travel in later years and had many great memories and stories of her cruise vacations. Some of her and Ted’s favorite cruises were to Alaska, the Panama Canal, Costa Rica and the Caribbean.
She was extremely fond of her last trip out to visit her daughter-in-law’s parents, which they traveled with to Laughlin, Nev. and many parts around southern California, where they lived.
She and Ted were members and involved with activities at the Merritt Island Moose Lodge. In her spare time, Barbara loved gardening and tending to her flower beds. She loved crossword puzzles and was an avid reader.
Barbara will be so greatly missed by her family: her two sons, Steven Theodore Kaufmann and his partner Xu Huang, John Walter Kaufmann and his wife Dolores, and her two grandchildren, Avalon Valkyrie Kaufmann and Jonathan Alexander Kaufmann, all of Rockledge; and five brothers, Ronald in North Carolina, Richard in Cairo, Iowa, Robert in Wisconsin, Hugh and his wife Judy, in Davenport, and Scott in Illinois.
She will forever rest in peace, knowing that no electronic device, TV remote, cell phone, computer, appliance, electrical gadget or screw top lid, will ever get the better of her, and no longer have a conspiracy against her.
Custom obituary