Barbara Ann Harding passed away peacefully at her home in Thousand Oaks, CA on June 7, 2010 at  the age of 70 due to Alzheimer’s disease and related complication.

Barbara was born November 18, 1939 in Calico Rock, Arkansas to Fred and Claircy Thomas.  Shortly after her birth, the family, including her older sister Ollie, moved to Maplewood, Missouri.  She graduated in 1957 from Maplewood Richmond Heights High School where she was active in drama, music and sport. Following graduation, Barbara attended Miss Hickey’s Business School and proceeded to build a career as an executive secretary starting at the Famous Barr Corporate offices in downtown St. Louis.

In 1962 she transferred to the May Department Stores in Los Angeles as the executive secretary to the President.  In doing so, she moved into an apartment in Hollywood, where she met and married her next door neighbor, George Harding, in 1963.

Barbara and George moved to Thousand Oaks, in 1964 where she  began a new career at Northrop Corporation as a legal secretary. Over the course of the next 20 years she was promoted several times to executive secretarial and management positions. Her favorite achievement, remained  her position as Manager of Marketing and Communications, which sent her to air shows in London, Paris, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C.  After her retirement in 1999, Barbara obtained her Real Estate License and worked for a time in this field.

In addition to her passion for her work and her family, Barbara was an accomplished artist who won 2nd prize for one of her oil paintings at the Ventura County Fair in 1967.

Barbara is survived by her husband of 46 years, George Harding and daughter Lise of Thousand Oaks, her nieces Sandy (Gene) Grise of Newport, AR, and Carolyn (Lou) Schmidt of St. Louis, MO, her nephew Michael (Ann) Donohue of St. Louis, MO, her sister-in-law Louise Wicks of Seattle, WA and numerous great and great-great nieces and nephews, cousins and dear friends.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, July 16 at 11:00 am at Griffin Family Funeral Chapels, 101 E. Wilbur Rd. Thousand Oaks.