Roberta Eleen Barnes, 95

May 25, 2023

Roberta Eleen Barnes, 95, born in Chicago, Illinois, passed away of natural causes at Brethren Village on May 25, 2023, in the company of four of her six children. Eleen, as she was usually called, was the only child of Andrew Marshall and Emily Ione (Sansom) Grace. Yet she enjoyed raising a large family of her own.

Eleen graduated from Menasha High School in Wisconsin, and met her first husband, Wilho Richard Heikkinen from Ramsay, Michigan, on a train. They married in 1948 after his graduation from West Point (joining the newly-formed Air Force) and had four children born on various Air Force bases in the US. Wil died on active duty in 1957.

Eleen met Robert Raymond Barnes in Dayton, Ohio, through mutual friends. In 1960, they were married and moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, near his Leola hometown. There she gave birth to two more children. The family all lived on a six-acre property which was pretty much perfect for kids, with a pond and adjacent woods. During Bob’s summer breaks from teaching Economics at Millersville University, they frequently visited Eleen’s parents near Mexico Beach, Florida. They also traveled most of the Continental US, usually with a station wagon and tent trailer. During their journeys, while Bob drove with great endurance, Eleen spent much of her time making sandwiches in the front seat for any passengers not yet off to college.

Some of Eleen’s talents and interests included oil painting, piano, ice skating, reading, hiking, and visiting her children frequently after they grew up and moved out. After Bob died in 1995, Eleen managed with abundant energy to maintain her large house and property for 14 years until moving to Brethren Village. A special talent was being able to outlast anyone in the family in sampling and finishing up others’ restaurant dishes, earning her the nickname “Hoover.” She also enjoyed spicy hot foods, and even during her final week asked repeatedly for drops of hot sauce on her tongue.

Eleen is survived by her six children, Lee Andrew Heikkinen (Brenda), Paula Eleen Grayhek (Paul), Philip Lawrence Heikkinen (Ellen Goldberg), Laura Grace Heikkinen, Richard Lee Barnes, and Roberta “Bobbie” Anne Springer (Garth); also, by 12 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.

Interment will be at the Riverview Burial Park in Lancaster, with no public memorial service planned. For anyone interested in making a memorial donation, Eleen loved supporting the World Wildlife Fund.