Barbara Murphey O'Quinn

Barbara Murphey O’Quinn, formerly of Citrus Heights passed away June 15, 2023 in Franklin, TN. She was 95. She was born July 23, 1927 in Coalinga, CA, the first child of Frank and Gertrude Bowden [Ledbetter]. Her sister Mary was born 15 months later, and the two were close all their lives until Mary passed away in 2013. Her half-sister Betty Ledbetter of San Rafael survives. Barbara graduated from Coalinga High School in 1945 and was the 1946 Horned Toad Queen. She worked for the Fresno Bee and met and married Glenn Murphey in 1948. She was surprised to find her calling as a pastor’s wife, and supported Glenn’s ministries across 50 years in Baptist churches, including Loomis, Encinitas, San Jose, Watsonville and others. They were married for 60 years. Barbara loved life and friends and to laugh well, and treasured her many driving trips across America with Glenn in their motor home in their retirement years. Her favorite song was Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” and she was always ready to pack a bag at the mention of the word “go.”

After Glenn passed in 2009, Barbara reconnected with and married an old Coalinga high school friend, Ralph “Doc” O’Quinn, in 2011. When he died in 2016, Barbara went to live with her son David and his wife in Concord before moving with her daughter Kathy to Franklin, TN in 2019. Barbara loved the many friends she made and kept across the years, including her Coalinga High School comrades, and she never missed a reunion. For years she managed the 1945 alumni Horned Toad Gazette. She was loved and is deeply missed by her family who remain, including three children: David [Carmelita] Murphey, Deborah Murphey, and Kathy Lowder, six grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held on Friday, October 13, at 1:30 p.m. at Sylvan Cemetery (7401 Auburn Blvd., Citrus Heights, CA 95610), with the Rev. Richard Neely presiding. In lieu of flowers, gifts to the Alzheimers Association are welcome.  Price Funeral Chapel (916-725-2109), directors.

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