Barbara Sue (Bell) Heady, 72, rural Erie, died at 1:45 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010, at the Prairie Mission Retirement Village in St. Paul. She had been in failing health for several years, but death was unexpected.

She was born on June 1, 1938, at Columbus to Grant F. and Esther L. (Stroup) Bell. She grew up in Baxter Springs and graduated from Baxter Springs High School. She graduated from the Mt. Carmel School of Nursing at Pittsburg and became a registered nurse.

Throughout her adult life she specialized in geriatric nursing and worked at several nursing homes in the area. She was an excellent musician and played piano and organ in churches. For many years she was active in the Shaw Christian Church and in recent years in the Erie Federated Church.

On September 11, 1959, she married Lewis Heady at the First Christian Church in Baxter Springs. He survives.

Other survivors include a son, Dr. Kent L. Heady and his wife, Cindy, Wichita; a daughter, Kelli Heady, Parsons; two granddaughters, Sarah Heady and Jana Heady; and a sister, Connie Windsor, Grove, Okla. She was preceded in death by her parents and a sister, Sammy Dahl.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Friday at the Federated Church in Erie. Burial will follow in the Shaw Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the Pierce-Carson-Wall Funeral Home in Erie from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. Memorials are suggested to the Federated Church. They may be left at or sent to the funeral home at Box 182, Erie, KS 66733. Online condolences may be left at www.wallfuneralservices.com.