Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Annette Barnes was The Republic’s 2017 Woman of the Year. She is pictured in her home in Columbus, Ind., in front of a painting by her friend Fred Wilson, who taught art at Indianapolis Public Schools.
Bartholomew County has lost one of its most respected advocates for social justice and human compassion.
The Rev. Annette B. Barnes, 85, died at 4:22 p.m. Wednesday.
Named The Republic’s 2017 Woman of the Year, Barnes had such a long list of accomplishments that, in the words of Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, there’s no doubt she will be missed by many and remembered for years to come.
Those achievements include:
Being named director of the Bartholomew County Youth Advocacy Committee in 1984
A member of the Columbus Human Rights Commission
Worked as a committee member to amend a city ordinance to include sexual orientation, gender identity and age as protected classes in Columbus
Member of the Police Audit and Review Committee
Served as a child advocate in court
Board member and volunteer at Mill Race Center
Active participant in an ongoing series of Muslim-Christian dialogues
Volunteer at Columbus Regional Hospital and extended care centers
Church leader at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church.
Active participant in the church’s bereavement ministry
As St. Bartholomew Senior Associate Fr. Clem Davis said in an earlier interview, Barnes was “comfortable in her own skin and would fight to allow everyone to experience that same comfort in theirs.”
Lienhoop, who lived across the street from Barnes for years, believes he understands why she wanted to serve her community in so many ways.
“She just had a great empathy for others, a willingness to serve, and a great desire to make the world around her a little bit better,” Lienhoop said. “And in doing so, she blessed all of us.”
Born during the Great Depression in Central City, Kentucky, Annette Bell was younger than a year old when the family moved to Indianapolis, where she grew up.
After getting married, she and her first husband lived a short time in St. Louis, Missouri. It was there in the early 1960s that the young woman and her family were denied service at a restaurant because of the color of their skin.
“She dealt with a lot of pain and racial struggles earlier in her life,’ said Fr. Chris Wadelton, St. Bartholomew pastor. “That somewhat defined who she was, and why she was such a passionate defender of justice.”
Her second marriage in 1981 brought her to Columbus, when she married Delmar Barnes (1926-2010), who retired as a vice-president from Cummins Inc., but then continued to work as a Franklin College professor and consultant for a software company until his death.
In contrast with her experience in St. Louis, Annette Barnes always credited her late husband’s boss at Cummins, Robert A. Orben, with making sure all members of her family always felt welcome in Bartholomew County.
Many others at Cummins, the community’s largest employer, made the couple feel welcome, Barnes said in an earlier interview with The Republic.
Receiving the call
Barnes worked for a bank, as a child advocate and as a department store employee before she felt the calling to become a minister.
After finishing up her requirements to graduate from Indiana University, Barnes went on to receive a Master of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. While ordained into the Christian Church Disciples of Christ denomination, Barnes eventually found her way back to her Catholic roots and became an active participant in the day-to-day St. Bartholomew church’s worship.
Although Barnes had to seek reconciliation with the church for a divorce that she did not want in order to be reunited with the Catholic faith, Barnes credits Fr. Davis with “loving her back into the church,” she said.
Outside of the church and social justice organizations, Barnes was known at the Mill Race Center as someone with the ability to first listen before speaking, center Executive Director Dan Mustard said.
“She was very helpful in providing counsel to me when dealing with different issues,” Mustard said. “When we talked one-to-one, she was always the calm voice that could see through the complicated issues. I always appreciated that.”
Barnes once said she believed one of her strengths is the capacity to stay in an adverse situation and not run away, even when it was difficult.
While much attention may be focused on her community contributions, Wadelton says one of her greatest personal achievements was being an exceptional mother.
“All of her children were very successful in their own right,” the pastor said. “She was the family matriarch, and all of her kids remained close to her.”
