ELKIN - Mrs. Lillian Josephine B. Barker, 81, of 560 Johnson Ridge Road, Elkin, passed away Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at Elkin Healthcare.

Lillian was born April 3, 1922, in Wilkes County, to Columbus Edmond Blackburn and Lillie Smith Blackburn.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; two sisters; and two brothers.

She is survived by two daughters, Mary Lee (Richard) Lineberry of Elkin and Carrie B. (Gary) Parish of Yadkinville; three brothers, Manuel Blackburn, Luther Blackburn and Joseph Blackburn, all of Elkin; six sisters, Claude Dean Cline and Janie Reinhardt, both of Winston-Salem and Rosa Linville, Lyvonne Woodring, Mary Mathis and Lillie Adams, all of Elkin; four grandchildren, Angie (Donald) Spann, Lisa (Mike) Osborne, Tawana (Wayne) Smith and Gary Dean Parish; and eight great-grandchildren.

The funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, May 2, 2003, at Cool Springs Baptist Church by the Rev. Bobby Prevette and the Rev. Olin Barker. Interment will follow in church cemetery. Mrs. Barker will lie in state from 1:30 to 2 p.m. The family will receive friends from 7 to 9 this evening at Johnson Funeral Home, 615 W. Main St., Elkin. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Northern Hospice of Mount Airy, P.O. Box 6626, Mount Airy, NC 27030.
Published in the Winston-Salem Journal on 5/1/2003.