Barbara Katherine Doe

Barbara Katherine Doe was born in Michigan on June 9, 1938, to Clarence Vernon Rader and Lillian Thelma Martin.

Barbara Katherine and her family moved to Herndon, Virginia when she was 7. By second grade, she had already met the boy who would become the love of her life—Frederick David Doe: they started dating in high school and were married by age 21.

Barbara was an avid reader and serious student, and the only young woman in her high school Physics class. She reigned as the May Queen one year in high school and participated in basketball and gymnastics. She loved, and continued to love, books, language, word play. After graduating, she enrolled in nursing school and practiced as an RN while Fred pursued his medical degree. Fred joined the military, and their life as an Army family took them all over this country and as far as Okinawa. Barbara’s sharp mind, determination, and exceptional ability to manage a household and children enabled her to successfully navigate change after change, often with Fred away for work.

Barbara’s faith defined her life, shaping the way she approached everything and ordering how she used her passions and gifts—she strove to think first of how they might contribute to providing a good and godly life for her family and to caring for her friends and community. Her faith also brought about the first hiccup in her relationship with Fred. While Fred was away for his first year of college, Barbara came to know Jesus and was prepared to tell Fred she could not date him anymore when they met again but discovered he had had the same experience. They never looked back.

Barbara and Fred found their hearts’ home in New Mexico among the people and the landscape. Here, they found a spiritual community they had been hungry for, found good biblical teaching and a renewed interest in Scripture.

Barbara gave everything she had to making the life of her family rich and has been a continued blessing in our adult lives in many ways. She prayed and studied the Bible always. She read all of her children and grandchildren to sleep. She achieved a black belt in karate. She loved portulacas and the family dogs, a rousing game of Boggle and spy novels. She was a maker of prom dresses, chocolate torts, and fresh apple cakes, delicate crocheted snowflakes, a creator, in her own way, and quietly pursued excellence in everything she took on, as she understood Scripture calls us to do, setting a strong example for her children.

Barbara Katherine Doe was preceded in death by her husband Dr. Frederick David Doe, her father, mother, and stepfather, her sisters, Marie and Helen, and two grandchildren, Atticus Bartholomew Centurion Doe and Corrie Grace Doe.

Barbara is survived by her children and their spouses—Kathie and Carl Little, Anne and Jeffrey Overstreet, Erin and Paulene Doe, Jeremy Frederick and Gretchen Doe, Victoria and Marco Barron, Aaron Doe and Leslie Booher, and Angela Doe Hofrichter, as well as her numerous and much-loved grandchildren—Amelia, Aubrey, Alicia, Abigail, Alaina, James (children of Kathie and Carl Little); Frederick Christian, Alaric, Charlotte, Peter, Benjamin, Charis (children of Erin and Paulene Doe); Frederick Alexander, Isabelle, Auralia, Solomon, Phinehas, Sojourner, Evermore (children of Jeremy Frederick and Gretchen); Gabrielle, Elijah, Nathan, Isaac (children of Victoria Barron); and Ethan, Liam (children of Aaron Doe), as well as her great grandchildren—Gideon, Arlo, Murron, Seamus, Ladd, Ransom, Camille, Saoirse, Rylin, Aviana, and Lewis, and by her brother Joe Ledford.

A funeral service for Barbara will be held at 9:00 AM, Saturday, December 9, 2023, at LaGrone Funeral Chapel. Interment will follow at South Park Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Gideons (Gideons.org/donate) or Food for the Hungry (FH.org/give).