Barbara Ann Powell

Barbara Ann Powell, 81, of Amarillo, TX went to be with Jesus Friday, January 14, 2022. Graveside services will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, at Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Dumas with Chaplain Lane Boyd officiating. Memorial Services will follow at 3:00 P.M. in the Craig Senior Living Community Chapel, 5500 S.W. 9^th Street in Amarillo. Arrangements by Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors, 2800 Paramount Blvd.

Barbara was born November 21, 1940, in Wellington, TX to Bert Grayson Bruce and Dovie Lucille Bruce. Barbara was the youngest of the Bruce daughters including Janetta Shelton, the eldest, and Johnnie Peeples. Barbara’s younger brother Gary Bruce was born in 1950. The Bruce kids were extremely close singing, working, and often sleeping together. They were also expected to pull their weight when it came to doing chores at home and even picking cotton to make extra money. However, the story goes that when Barbara was still too small to help with the picking, her Daddy would literally drag her down the row on a cotton sack while the family was working in the field.

Barbara attended school at Quail, TX, and Wellington until the family moved to Cactus, TX. While living in Cactus, Barbara met and married her high school sweetheart Glenn Welch, also of Cactus. The two started a life together which included the addition of their two children, Tanya and Kirk. After Glenn’s time in the Army, Glenn graduated from data processing school in Dallas and the family moved to Lubbock, TX where Glenn worked for Lubbock National Bank and Barbara worked as an insurance secretary.

While in Lubbock, Glenn had success in the early years of computer technology, allowing Barbara to leave the workforce and stay home with the kids. Barbara, above all, valued her relationship with Jesus Christ and was committed to demonstrating her faith through love and respect for all those she came into contact with. While in Lubbock, she was an active member of Monterey Baptist Church, where she sang in the choir and where both children were baptized.

Second only to her faith in importance were Barbara’s relationships with her family and friends. During the Lubbock years, Barbara made close friends through work and church. An especially close relationship developed with Glenn’s co-worker Vic Butler and his wife, Georgia. In Georgia and Vic, Barbara found friends she treasured like members of her own family. Glenn and Vic also bonded well beyond work and the couples regularly got their families together for weekends, celebrations, and annual family fishing vacations to Colorado. In 1976, Glenn passed away from a heart attack at age 37 and Barbara moved the family to Dumas.

Barbara married Ted Powell in 1978. The two were married for 41 years until Ted’s passing in 2019. When they first married, Barbara and Ted lived in Dumas and enjoyed traveling, including frequent trips to Angel Fire, NM,

and visiting all the lower 48 states and Alaska in their motor home. Barbara and Ted then lived in Sun City at Georgetown, TX for about ten years. After Georgetown, they moved to the Craig Methodist Retirement Center in Amarillo. The Chapel at the Craig was a regular place of worship, led by Chaplain Lane Boyd.

Survivors include her daughter Tanya and Randy Nettles of Amarillo; son Kirk of Dumas and Vicki Welch of Brownfield; sister Johnnie and Rex Peeples of Amarillo; brother Gary and Nancy Bruce of Fritch; stepson Robert and Barbie Powell of Dallas; stepdaughter Marta and Steve Scott of Marble Falls; grandchildren Reeve Nettles of Dallas, Kirsten Nettles of Alexandria, Virginia; Jenna and Chandler Lumpkin of Redding, CA; Jason Welch of Amarillo, TX; Whitney and Christopher Bruce of Leander; Preston and Brooke Powell of Houston; Madison and Dr. Kyle Norris of Birmingham, AL. Barbara is preceded in death by her sister Janetta Shelton.