Written by Rebecca (Becky) Barker

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John was born on November 30, 1945 in Beaumont Texas to Elbert Wesley Barker and Lona Belle Barker.  He had three older siblings, Janice Sue (1/2 sister), Tracy, and Douglas.  His father was a pipeline welder by trade.  He moved the family quite often during John’s early life.  The family moved to Midland when John was in the second grade. 

He attended South Elementary the 2nd through 6th grades.  His parents divorced when John was ten or eleven.  His mother worked all the time to support the family.  This left John and his brothers on their own most of the time.  John told me that his mother purchased summer passes to the swimming pool at Halff Park.  He spent most of his days during the summers in his elementary years swimming in that pool.  Also, he said that when it came time to go home, he would run barefoot from the pool to their home on South Camp St.  He sure must have had some tough feet.  His older brother Tracy worked at the Halff pool as a lifeguard.  I don’t know if Doug ever worked as a lifeguard, but John was never a lifeguard.

John and I, Rebecca Dillard Barker, were in the same class in the third grade.  Our class was in the second story of the old red brick building at South Elementary.  If the wind was blowing very hard, the building would sway.  We both were in the same class again in the fifth grade.  Neither one of us remembered the other being in that class, but we both remembered Miss Weaver bringing her tv to school and letting us watch the World Series.  We both remembered Charlie Huggins was in that class with us. John like the rest of us walked or rode a bike everywhere, in fact all over town.  On South Camp where John lived, the roads were gravel.  John had so many flat tires from the roads that he gave up and just walked or ran everywhere.

John was a very quite, methodical, , unassuming, modest, loyal, kind, and industrious individual.  Eddie Klatt says that John Barker was a good friend.  They were friends from a very early age. I think he had many friends during his lifetime.  He had a good sense of humor and enjoyed teasing others.  The quality that I and others saw in him was that he could take teasing well also.  He never provoked a fight but could handle one if necessary.  One of Doug’s peers found this out the hard way.  The guy had a beef with Doug and decided he would take it out on little brother.  The results were not good for him, but John told me that after that fight, he never had any problems with his brother’s school mates.