Barbara Ann Gardiner Hearon

Mrs. Hearon died Thursday, May 8, 2003, at her home, of cancer.

She was born Sept. 19, 1940, in Garden City, Kan., the daughter of Mervin and Hallie Gardiner. She graduated from Gardner City schools and from Oklahoma College for Women in 1962. She was student body president and Miss OCW her senior year. She moved from Bakersfield to Ventura County in 1967, then to Ventura in 2000.

Mrs. Hearon taught home economics at Shafter High School in California. She became a guidance counselor at Simi Valley High School in 1967 and retired in 1989. She was a member of the PEO Sisterhood and served three terms as president of her local chapter and was chairwoman of the State Committee for the PEO Loan Fund. She was also a docent for Ventura County Museum of History and Art.

She married Ray Hearon in 1966. He survives of the home.

Other survivors include a stepson, Mark Hearon, Moorpark; two stepdaughters, Marie Elder, Bakersfield, and Rhonda Cleeland, Rancho Cucamonga; her mother, Lawrence, Kan.; two sisters, Beverley Morgan, Lawrence, Kan., and Becky Bigler, Arcadia, Okla.; five grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

A granddaughter died earlier.

The family suggests memorials to PEO Educational Loan Fund, 3700 Grand Ave., Des Moines, Iowa 50312-2899; University of Science and Art of Oklahoma, 1727 W. Alabama, Chickasha, Okla. 73018-5322; or the museum, 100 E. Main St., Ventura, Calif. 93001.

Charles Carroll Funeral Home in Ventura is in charge of arrangements.