Jerry A. Barton

Staff Sergeant (Retired) Jerry Alan Barton was Called Home at his residence in Aurora, Colorado the 2nd of December, 2015. He was born to Oral Frazier and Verda Eunice Williams Barton in Wink, Texas, on 22 March 1931, the younger of two children. He grew up in various places in Texas and California, and was baptized into Christ at age 12. He graduated from Odessa High School in 1949, went to college at Tarlton, and was drafted into the Army in 1951. During the Korean War, he served in Eritrea in the Signal Corps, and was discharged at Camp Stoneman, California in 1953.

While returning to Texas, he married Marian Aline Phillips, a music and art teacher, in Albuquerque, NM. The couple made their home in New Mexico and Texas while Jerry resumed his education, worked at various jobs, joined the Army National Guard and then Reserve, and had three children. In 1963, he completed his college degree work in history at Eastern New Mexico University and moved north to Colorado. He and Marian taught school in Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, and Montana, returning to Kansas and then Colorado in 1970, first to Deer Trail and Agate, and then in 1978 to Aurora, where he remained until his death. After years of part-time Reserve and Guard service, in 1973 he became a full-time training technician and NCO in the Colorado Air National Guard, transferring in 1978 to the Army Reserve as an NCO and technician in various units and facilities in the Denver area, traveling across the nation for training and other duties.

During this period, he continued his education in various military schools and at Bear Valley School of Preaching in Denver. He taught and preached both part-time and full-time in Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado, for various churches of Christ. He was a member of many churches of Christ during his life, and of the Smoky Hill Church of Christ at the time of his death, working in many evangelistic efforts and assisting in establishing a number of congregations over the years.

Both then and when retired, he traveled and also continued his research into history and writing on history, particularly in his major interests of the Army during the Civil War and Indian Wars, and World War Two, during which he had grown up.

He retired from the military in 1987 and the civil service in 1993, and established the Barton History Center to do research.

He lost Marian to cancer in 1994, and is also preceded in death by his parents, a nephew, and two great-grandchildren. He is survived by his older sister Yvonne Pattijoy Barton Nichols, his sons and daughter, Nathan, David, and Maureen, by five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, a niece, grand-nieces and -nephews, and their spouses and children.

He was an active and often lifetime member of many organizations, including various congregations, the Panhandle-Plains, Colorado, and South Dakota Historical Societies, the Council on America's Military Past, Wings Over the Rockies Museum Foundation, Order of the Indian Wars, and the American Legion Post 23. His major hobbies were his historical research and writing, and collecting models of military vehicles and aircraft. His home was a vast library and filled with models and paintings.

Jerry's faith, love and knowledge will be missed, but he is in the bosom of Abraham and Home.

He will be interred with his wife at Black Hills National Cemetery in South Dakota.

The funeral service will be at 1000 hours, Tuesday, 15 December 2015, at Newcomers Funeral Chapel, 190 N. Potomac, Aurora, Colorado, with a reception at the American Legion, 25th & Dayton, Aurora, immediately following.

In lieu of flowers, his family asks that memorial contributions be made to an organization of their choice. Suggestions made by the family for specific donations are to the Aurora Senior Center, American Legion Post 23, Wings Over the Rockies Museum, and World Bible School, all of which may be found on-line.

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