Edith Onitta Barker

Edith Onitta Barker peacefully passed away in her home on April 5, 2021 surrounded by her children. She was best known as a loving mother, grandmother, aunt, and friend. Family was her priority in life. She had a reputation for serving great home-cooked meals and hospitality. There was always room for one more around her table.

She was the tenth of eleven children born to Demps and Lissie Edwards on August 28, 1930 in Red Star, Arkansas. She was delivered in their home by her maternal grandmother-midwife, Gemima Hodge.

She married Clyde Barker in 1946, three days after her sixteenth birthday. They moved from Arkansas to the Yakima Valley (WA) area in 1947, where they picked fruit briefly, until Clyde was hired by the Weyerhaeuser Company in Longview, WA. Onitta was a homemaker and stay-at-home mother to their six children until the early 1970s when she became employed by the Longview Post Office as a rural mail carrier. She retired from the post office in the mid-1990s.

Onitta was preceded in death by her loving husband of 54 years, Clyde, her oldest son, Lyle, her parents, and her ten siblings, Lula Johnson, and Willard Edwards both of Longview, Sylva Edwards, Lela Wyatt, Harlie Edwards, Buster Edwards, Scott Edwards, Claude Edwards, Arvil Edwards, and Bonnie Parker, all of Arkansas.

She is survived by her children, Wanda (Joe) Salus, Oregon, Rosemary (John) Vroman of Chehalis, WA, Shirley Trahanes, Jackie (Jon) Browne, James (Mona) Barker, and daughter-in-law Laurel Barker, all of Longview, 17 grandchildren, 32 great grandchildren, and 9 great- great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

Family, friends and neighbors are invited to attend a graveside service at Bunker Hill Cemetery (Longview) on Thursday, April 15, at 1:00 p.m. Following the service there will be an outdoor potluck at Onitta’s residence. Please bring lawn chairs and memories to share. Masks and social distancing are requested.