Joseph’s Obituary Joseph Patrick Barnes passed away February 27, 2019 following a short battle with cancer. Joe was born September 15, 1947 in Davenport, Iowa to Marie (Kelly) and Joseph Barnes. The youngest of five children, he lived in Davenport for his entire childhood.
His children loved to hear stories about his first job as a bicycle ice cream salesman at the age of fourteen. Other early pastimes included playing the piano, talking to people waiting for the city bus that stopped outside of his house on Mississippi Avenue and hanging out at the Schramp family home. Joe finished his bachelor’s degree at St. Ambrose College and took a job in human res at Rock Island Arsenal before being drafted into the US Army and serving two tours in Vietnam.
Upon returning from Vietnam, Joe resumed his work at Rock Island Arsenal and married Kathleen Schramp; they had four children and shared 25 years of marriage. Joe loved history and travel and enjoyed ten years living in Germany with his family while he worked as the Civilian Personnel Officer for the Department of Defense and earned his master’s degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. After spending some time in St. Louis and Davenport in the 1990s, Joe resumed his career working for the US government in Washington D.C. Always a Francophile, he began an earnest study of French at the Alliance Française and a quest to land a job in his favorite city, Paris.
Joe’s efforts resulted in a position with the American Battle Monuments Commission in Paris, where he loved working and living for the last eight years of his career before retirement. In his three years of retirement, Joe enjoyed living in Kansas City, being a grandpa, his biweekly breakfast buddies, his dog Charlie Parker, and visits to the National WWI Museum. Joe is preceded in death by his parents, siblings Mary (Barnes) Beard, Tom Barnes, and Jeanette (Barnes) Rada and granddaughter Elizabeth Rose Barnes; he is survived by his brother Gerald (Valerie) Barnes; in-laws Marge Barnes and Bill Rada; children Molly Barnes (Steve Wisner), Matt Barnes, Clare (Andy) Bond, Ann (Chris) Kay, and grandchildren Rosalie, Theo and Amos Nowlan; Guthrie Barnes; Jake, Nora and Luke Bond; Henry and Simon Kay; and many nieces, nephews and friends near and far.
Joe will always be remembered for his great stories and the jokes he told in Irish brogue, his ability to live in the moment and enjoy the little things, his love and kindness toward people of all walks of life, and his affinity for books, music, art and cooking. In the spirit of Joe’s inclusiveness and compassion, memorial donations can be made in his name to reStart Kansas City, whose mission is to empower people and end homelessness in our community. reStart: 816.
472. 5664 restartinc.org/ Visitation will be at Muehlebach Funeral Home, 6800 Troost Ave, Kansas City, on Sunday, March 3 from 1-2, with a service directly following.
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