Jeanne Castle Buchly

Eunice Jeanne Castle Buchly, loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 25, 2020.  Jeanne was born in 1935 in St. Joseph, Missouri into an American family whose paternal roots rose from the lives of homesteaders who settled the Great Plains of the American West.  Her early years were spent in Missouri.  The family moved to Albuquerque in 1949.  Following her graduation from Highland High School in June of 1953, she married into an athletic and military family, ultimately beginning a life dedicated to raising a family at the Cranbrook School for Boys in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where her husband, David Barney, served as an athletic coach, a housemaster, and a teacher of English.  Jeanne’s role at Cranbrook was an impressive one; she served on a wide spectra of parent support committees for student related activities, the most notable of which was her stewardship of the school’s traditional and elaborate activity, its Christmas Pageant.  When her husband left the Cranbrook School in 1967 to become a teacher, coach and head of the senior school at Albuquerque Academy, she reprised her Cranbrook role to actively serve and support the Academy’s many extracurricular activities.  In that light, her skillful management of a home, family and school activities, postured her reputation of what American educational culturalists have come to define as ‘The Good School Wife.’ Later in life, following her children’s graduation from high school, she turned her attention to the care and service of senior citizens as a program director for several senior citizen centers.  Her motherly instincts, marked by attention to detail, love and consideration for others, would become the signature of her service to seniors. Jeanne’s second marriage to Dan Buchly in 1989 was sustained by a gracious interaction with a new extended family.   She pursued and enjoyed a full life with many interests including crafting, avid reading, book club, investment club, decorating, gardening and extensive travel.   Even though her latter years were marred by memory loss, she maintained her remarkable beauty, poise, personality and endearing giggle.

Jeanne was predeceased by her parents Stewart and Irma Castle, her brother Roger Castle, her son Timothy Barney, and her late husband Dan Buchly.   She is survived by her sister Joann Ledbetter and husband Bert, her former husband David Barney and wife Norma, daughters April Barney-Kraus, Jamie Beckstrom and husband Rick, daughter-in-law Shirley Barney, as well as five grandchildren, five great grandchildren, numerous nieces, nephews, and stepchildren.   

A Memorial Service will be held at 10:00 am on Friday, October 1, 2021 at Daniels - Sara Chapel, 4310 Sara Rd. SE Rio Rancho, NM.