She was born on November 26, 1946, to Gerald and Evelyn Lawson in Marshalltown, Iowa, and was the eldest of seven siblings. Barb graduated from LDF High School, LeGrand, in the class of 1965. She went on to attend college and nurses training which led to a career as a home health care nurse in both Iowa and Florida. She was married to John Shackelford for 45 years and resided on the southeast Florida coast for 25 of those years. They moved to Tennessee in 2007 where she spent many years in researching her Lawson side genealogy. Eventually, she located her Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfathers grave site. Surprisingly, his cemetery was less than 10 miles from Barb’s residence. Barb was also an avid reader of books and loved to be around the calming effects of rivers, lakes and oceans.

Barb was also the “girl who fell in the well” in 1958. While waiting with her siblings for the school bus to arrive one morning, one of her brothers saw the well cover collapse and alerted his mother who immediately called the LeGrand fire department. The volunteer firemen had her out within 30 minutes and Furman Parks was one of the men credited with saving her life. The story not only made the front page of the Times-Republican, but was also a national and even international story at the time. We find it amazing that Barb still liked the water so much, after such a terrorizing incident.

Barbara was preceded in death by her parents and is survived by her spouse and all six of her siblings. Darrell Lawson, Curtis (spouse Teresa) Lawson, Dwight Lawson, Rodney Lawson, David (spouse Cheri) Lawson and Brenda (spouse Meghan) Lawson.

To honor her wishes, cremation rights have been accorded and no public funeral service is planned at this time. May she rest in peace.