Claudette Barnes was born to Lahoma and Vern “Red” Keasling in Luther, Okla., on Aug. 14, 1939. On Nov. 7, 2024, age 85, she passed peacefully at Gritman Medical Center in Moscow, surrounded by three generations of family deeply blessed by her abiding love.
Claudette spent much of her childhood in Oklahoma City. Like her namesake, the actress Claudette Colbert, she was smart, independent and resourceful, catching the downtown bus alone to go to the movies. In her teen years, she worked as an elevator operator and swimsuit model for Montgomery Ward, waited tables, detasseled broom corn, and was an unwitting rumrunner for her father, who, among other dubious business endeavors, moved liquor across county lines.
When she moved to Luther to live with her grandmother, she proved herself a top student and basketball player and told her girlfriend a secret: “I’m just crazy about that Oneil Barnes!” It turned out he was crazy about her, too. When he graduated and moved west to work as a lumberjack, he called from the only pay phone within 50 miles and asked her to marry him. They wed in Pierce in 1956, and spent the next 14 years living in the isolated towns and logging camps of the Clearwater National Forest, often in one-room shacks without plumbing or electricity. When possible, she continued her studies at Pierce High School until the birth of her daughter, Kim, born in 1958, followed by son, Greg, in 1961. Charismatic and determined, she always found ways to enrich her family’s life, sewing clothes late into the night, painting store windows at Christmas, bartering work in exchange for rent, including mucking out and “Cloroxing from floor to ceiling” a small house that had been used as a horse shed. It was in Pierce where Claudette became a member of the Pentecostal Church of God — a faith that sustained her for the rest of her life.
In 1970, Claudette and her family left “the woods” for the last time and moved to Lewiston, where she cashiered at McPherson’s (Family Foods) and sold Tupperware before training as a dental chairside assistant, lab technician and front desk specialist. Versatile and tenacious, she completed her GED, and then passed her exam to become a licensed real estate agent with an intuitive ability to find the perfect fit for her clients, to whom she extended her characteristic generosity, cleaning their houses when they couldn’t, gifting them homemade wreathes that still hang on their doors. She found happiness in serving others, and that included family — her greatest priority.
Holidays meant big Southern-style meals and enough leftovers to go around. “Food is how I show my love,” she said, and her love brought the family together again and again. She attended to her mother-in-law and husband through their extended illnesses and deaths. In 2010, in order to be closer to family, she retired and moved to Moscow, where she added new friends to her long roster of people whose lives she touched with her humor, empathy and grace.
Even as she bravely faced her own health crises, she remained intent on bearing witness to the hopes, fears, dreams, challenges and successes of those she loved the most. She was one of the best humans we have ever known — a gift we will carry forever in our hearts. A celebration of life will be announced this spring, when it is warm and sunny and full of the flowers that brought her joy.
Claudette was preceded in death by her husband and other beloved family members, including great-grandson Cody Russell Line. She is survived by Kim Barnes (Robert Wrigley); Greg Barnes (Judy); grandchildren Philip, Jordan (Scott Edinborough), and Jace Wrigley; Shea Line (Cody); and Devin Barnes (April); great-grandchildren Keasling Line, Lakeleigh Line and Gunnar Barnes; and kitty Sophie, lovingly adopted by Chuck and Rena Edinborough. More than anything, she wanted to be here for the birth of her newest great-granddaughter, Calan Cody Line.
The family is grateful to Dr. Bryn Parker, Teresa Blackner, Kelly Quinnett and the staff at Gritman Medical Center for their gracious and tender care of our beloved Mom, Grandma and GiGi.
Donations in Claudette’s memory and in honor of her great-granddaughter Keasy may be made to Nevus Outreach: nevus.org/fundraising/keasy.
To learn more about Claudette in her own words, please visit her Story Corps interview with son Greg: archive.storycorps.org/interviews/gregory-barnes-and-claudette-barnes.
Short’s Funeral Chapel of Moscow is in charge of arrangements and condolences may be left at shortsfuneralchapel.com.
