 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||
 |
Ladybug Matriarch Lela Barnes Dead at 81
ADA, OK—AUGUST 17, 2009—-Services for Lela Mae Barnes, 81, will be held at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday at the Criswell Funeral Chapel in Ada, Oklahoma. Rev. David Sutton will officiate with interment following at Rosedale Cemetery.
Mrs. Barnes died on Friday, August 14, 2009, at a Madill, Oklahoma nursing home.
She was born May 12, 1928, in Madill to Alonzo and Lela Creswell Stanley. She owned and operated Ada’s first beauty school, Lela’s Beauty College. She married Marvin Barnes on December 31, 1957, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She was a member of First Baptist Church in Ada.
She and Marvin, along with their famed mare FL Ladybug, were inducted in to the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Hall of Fame last year.
Marvin and Lela Barnes has been among Quarter Horse racing’s most influential owners and breeders during their 51-year marriage. They won the All-American Futurity in 1982 with Mr Master Bug at a time when the Ruidoso Downs fixture was the world’s richest horse race, and, through FL Lady Bug — a 1945 foal Barnes originally purchased for $1,000 and bought and sold several times over the years before buying her back for keeps in 1955 — and other horses produced at Lady Bug Stallion Station, they established a line that is still having a huge impact on the sport today.
FL Lady Bug’s son, Lady Bugs Moon, was part of an historic running of the All-American back in 1968 when he finished second in a 10-horse field where the second through fifth-place finishers were all bred by the Barnes.
Horse racing was a family affair as she was preceded in death by her brother A.F. Stanley, Jr., who co-bred First Down Dash. Her son, Jerry Vaughn Whittle, has raced numerous stakes winners including Dash For Cash Derby(G1) winner Showcase Six.
Survivors include her husband, Marvin Barnes, of the home; a son, Jerry Whittle, Aubrey, Texas; Grandson, Vaughn Whittle, Aubrey, Texas; a granddaughter, Cory Whittle, Aubrey, Texas; great granddaughters, Avree and Taylor Whittle, Aubrey, Texas; and great grandson, Weldon Whittle, Aubrey, Texas; her sister-in-law Weetona Stanley of Madill, Oklahoma and many nieces and nephews.
Pallbearers are her nephews Stan Stanley, Fred Stanley, Steve Stanley, Frank Lamirand Jimmy Lamirand and her grandson Vaughn Whittle.