Deborah Bennett-Barnes

BARNES, Deborah Elaine Bennett – Age 53. Deborah was born on November 16, 1958, in Dallas, Texas. Her parents, Joan Marciano and John Bennett, moved their family to Wendover, Nevada. Deborah remembered going exploring in nearby caves and being a bit of a tomboy during her years there. She also remembered playing with race car drivers' kids like Michael Andretti when they came to the Salt Flats in the off season. She said, "We always ate well when they came because they bought us steak dinners." Deborah's father worked as a timer for the racers.Her parents' marriage was a volatile one. At the age of eight Joan took Deborah to California, settling in the South Bay Santa Clara County of the San Francisco Bay Area. Eventually Joan was hired by Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. As a single mother in the late 1960s, she worked as much as she could. Deborah described herself as a latch key kid from an early age; this started her road to being an independent person.Deborah was a bright child and skipped several grades. She graduated from JFK High School in Fremont, California, at the age of sixteen, and she had her first college degree by the time she was nineteen. She worked in Social Services for several years at a group home for battered and abused children. She found this work gratifying yet emotionally draining. She decided it was time for a change and went back to school. This time, since the home and corporate computer age had begun, she studied computer sciences. As a requirement for her degree she needed to study a foreign language and she discovered that sign language was one option. One of her classmates was Jack Jackson, Marlee Matlin's long-time interpreter. Deborah paid for her second round of schooling by a fluke. She had won a large jackpot on a slot machine, and she was trying to carry several buckets of quarters to cash in. She couldn't handle them all, so she put one down on a roulette table. She had started to walk away when she won!During this time she was an avid fan of the Osmond Family. She followed them on local tours and eventually met and started working for them in the mid '80s. She helped sell merchandise at concerts and ended up being Marie's dresser for a time.As was common then, Deborah worked for several "start-up companies" that didn't stay up. She eventually became a corporate trainer for a company that specialized in power consumption monitoring. This afforded her the opportunity to travel all over the country. Though others saw this as a glamorous life style, she said it was actually very lonely being in strange towns by herself. "Most of the time I'd only see the airport, the hotel and the offices." When she could, she'd stay over a weekend, rent a car and explore the area. One such time was to Nashville, Tennessee, which would be significant later in life.When Deborah was in her mid teens she met a man named Paul. Even though he was in his early twenties they developed a loving relationship. They had dreams of marriage and several children. Before any of that could happen he died in a car accident. Deborah became involved in local theater, helping with props. In 1987 she helped run props during the shows for San Jose Civic Light Opera SJCLO. It was there that she met the man that she would eventually marry. Phil Barnes was a scenic carpenter at SJCLO and they became fast friends. Deborah loved photography, and one Saturday she took a photo of Phil as he was headed to his cousin's wedding between shows. Later as she looked through that roll's prints, she came across that picture and said to herself, "I'm going to marry that man."Deborah and Phil did become a couple a year later and they married on September 7, 1991, in Morgan Hill, California. Phil "produced" the wedding and twenty years later, people still say it was the best wedding they've ever been to.Eventually Deborah and Phil decided it was time to have children. This proved difficult. Deborah had issues getting pregnant, and while trying to resolve those issues she developed diabetes. At that point pregnancy was no longer a safe option. So they turned to adoption and 13 months later in 1997 had a beautiful baby boy – Austin Taylor Barnes. He became and remained the joy of their lives.Deborah's greatest love outside her family was the Christmas season. She loved to have the entire house decorated and she collected Santa Claus figures. It became a tradition to give her at least one Christmas decoration for her mid-November birthday. Deborah dreamed of retiring with Phil to become Mr. and Mrs. Claus.Deborah's next greatest love was nature. She loved feeding the birds and squirrels and being a dog owner. Her love of trees is what attracted her to Middle Tennessee. In her youth she physically chained herself to some old-growth trees that were in danger of being taken down for a strip mall. When she left California twenty years later those trees were still standing in the parking lot.California was in trouble in 2000 with sky rocketing housing costs and rolling blackouts. After the death of Phil's father, Phil and Deborah decided to explore new opportunities. In January 2002, along with Deborah's mother, they moved to a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, an area Deborah loved when she traveled there on business years before.Deborah became a personnel recruiter at Vanderbilt. She later worked for EASI Automation recruiting franchisees until 2008. Her health was in decline by then, but she did manage to be PTO Vice President at T.W. Hinter Middle School while Austin attended there.Even though they lived apart, Deborah had always been close with her father. In fact, she had the best relationship with him of any of the children from his other marriages. In 2005 Deborah traveled to be with her father, John Bennett, before he died. She spent his last two weeks with him and was there when he passed. She said it was the worst best experience of her life. On December 20, 2007, her mother, Joan, died suddenly while driving home.Deborah's health had been in a slow decline for a number of years. She had become unable to work and needed mobility help to be out of the house. She suffered from constant pain. Although she could walk short distances she couldn't stand in place without great discomfort. In August 2011 she developed a wound on the bottom of her foot that necessitated "chair rest" for several months. Being sedentary for so long led to fluid retention issues that required hospitalization four times between November 2011 and January 2012. Deborah died at home on March 6, 2012, at 10:50 p.m. from a massive coronary. She was only in distress for ten minutes before it was over. Though she was unhappy with what her lifestyle had become she was not ready to leave us yet at only 53. She will be missed by all who knew her. She is survived by her husband of twenty years, Phil Barnes 50 and son Austin 14. The family asks that you make donations to the American Diabetes Association in her name. ADA link:https://donations.diabetes.org/site/Donation2?df_id=7680&7680.donation=form1&loc=DropDownDON-memorial