John Frederick Barbour

Obituary

Passed on

May 9, 1935 – November 29, 2024

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of John Barbour on November 29, 2024, at the age of 89 at Teulon Hunter Memorial Hospital and Care Home.

Left to cherish his memory are his wife Florence (Flo); their sons Glenn (Rosa), Doug (Nicole), Calvin (Beth), and Dale; John’s daughter Bonnie from a previous relationship: his sister Ethel; grandchildren Curtis (Caitlyn), Dustin, Tessa, Santana (Carisa), Christopher (Katie), and great grandchildren: Penelope, Max, and Malcolm.

John was predeceased by his parents Jack and Ada, his sister Jean Kuran, and brothers-in-law Bob Gottfreid and Robert Kuran.

John was born on May 9, 1935, and raised on the family farm in Balmoral, Manitoba. In his youth he built a deep circle of friends that would stay with him throughout his entire life. Losing those friends over the last few years, was the hardest part of getting older for Dad.

Dad travelled and worked across the country in his youth: he went out to British Columbia for a year to work in Vancouver, and worked on telegraph lines across British Columbia and Northern Ontario. By 1959 he was back in Winnipeg and met and married Florence Allen on May 23, 1959. Life would give them 65 good years together and a family.

After getting married, Dad came out to the family farm in Balmoral and took up farming. He took provincial training, expanded the farm, and added cattle and pigs in the 1970s. Dad also began working part-time at Headingly Correctional Centre as a guard in the 1970s: a career that would quickly became full time and that would take him into retirement in the 1990s.

Work at the jail and farming kept Dad busy: but he always made time for family vacations during the summer. Some of the best vacations were with the extended family and Dad always welcomed his nieces and nephews on the farm with open arms. We travelled across Canada to the West Coast and toured the camp grounds of Manitoba and Northern Ontario before building a family cabin at Grindstone Provincial Park. Some of our fondest memories are of Dad standing around the Coleman stove—the clank of a pot touching the grill—as he cooked breakfast for us.

Dad used to say that there were beach families and non-beach families: he always made sure we were a beach family. He loved heading up to Winnipeg Beach or heading over to Lockport on the weekend to pick up a hotdog from Skinner’s or the Halfmoon Restaurant.

Dad had a knack for telling stories and giving people knick-names. He would regale his family with stories at the dinner table and his friends at the Rec Centre in Balmoral.

Retirement gave John and Flo a new lease on life and a chance to spend more time together. They spent their winters in Mexico and British Columbia, before settling into making annual trips down to Arizona. Along the way they made new friends in every community they stayed and in Arizona they joined a robust community of Balmoral snowbirds.

Dad loved golfing and some of his best retirement moments were spent travelling with his crew up to Inwood Golf Course, or to other golf courses in the Interlake, where they could spend an afternoon together and share stories about who was doing what in their community.

Dad’s last year was spent at Teulon Hunter Memorial Hospital and Care Home the family deeply appreciates the care attention that the staff their provided for him.

A celebration of life will be held on Friday, December 6, 2024 at 2:00 pm at Balmoral Community Hall, Balmoral, Manitoba.

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