- Barbara Wallace died peacefully Tuesday, May 21 at St. Johns Medical Center.
She was born December 22, 1928 in Tulsa to Dan and Jewell Wagner. Barbara graduated from Bartlesville College High School. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Tulsa as a member of Mortar Board and Chi Omega. She was an active member of the theater and puppet theater departments at TU.
While at TU, she met Henry Wallace, a Veteran from New York City. They were married on May, 30, 1950 in Tulsa. He preceded her in death in October, 2012.
Henry and Barbara lived in Dumas and Borger, Texas, where their daughters were born, then moved to Bartlesville in 1959.
She was a wife, mother and grandmother, but she was foremost a musician and teacher.
Barbara began playing the violin at the age of 10 and performed in high school, college and community symphonies nearly her entire life.
Her teaching career in Bartlesville spanned five decades and included public schools - where she started a program in which every fourth grader at Ranch Heights School played an instrument - to very young Suzuki students, Strolling Strings and private students.
She was a clinician for the Kjos Music Company at the American String Teacher's Association conferences. She was named the American String Teacher of the Year for Oklahoma in 1991.
"You only need to practice on days which you eat," Barbara would tell her students with a laugh and a smile.
She especially enjoyed playing quartet music with Bruce Price, Spencer Prentiss and Peggy Varvel.
Barbara was one of the founding members of the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra. She was concert mistress from 1962 until 1977 and was principal second violinist until 2004. Only on a few rare occasions did she miss playing in a concert.
She taught high school music students at a number of prestigious summer camps including Interlochen, Michigan, Wisconsin and the University of Arkansas, where she has a camp scholarship named in her honor.
Along with her close friend Myrna Hershberger, Barbara founded the Strolling Strings group, who performed hundreds of concerts throughout the West and Midwest, and in Germany, Austria and France between 1987 and 2001.
Her legacy is one of bringing music to thousands of young students, teaching them the value, beauty and timelessness of the international language of classical music.
In addition to her musical life, Barbara enjoyed attending to her children's numerous events, including athletics and musical theater as well as numerous camping and canoeing trips.
She was a member of P.E.O., Musical Research Society, the Bartlesville Symphony Society and the Caney United Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband and an infant son, Dan Patrick.
She is survived by four children: Daughters Tracy Saenz, and husband Esteban, of Eudora, Ks.; Leslie Wallace, and husband Dan Tremblay, of Lafayette, Col.; Sons Bruce Wallace, and wife Susan, of Columbia, Mo.; Paul Wallace, and wife Felicia, of Caney, Ks.; she is also survived by seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Services for Barbara Helene Wagner Wallace will be held Thursday, May 30, 2013 at 2 p.m. at Caney United Methodist Church.
A Musical Celebration will be held on Thursday, May 30 at 7 p.m. at the Bartlesville Community Center, featuring many local performers. The community is invited to this free concert.
Friends who wish may sign the online guest book and leave condolences at www.stumpff.org.
Published in Examiner-Enterprise from May 24 to June 23, 2013
|
1928 - 2013 (84 years)
