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MCDONALD -- Barbara Jane Stewart McDonald, 85, died on March 25, 2009. Born near Washington, D.C. and raised in Urbana, Illinois, Barbara graduated from the University of Illinois-Urbana, and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. She married John McDonald on October 23, 1943. John, a career diplomat, Barbara, and their four children spent many years serving the United States in Washington, DC and abroad, most notably in Germany, France, Turkey, and Egypt. In 1977 Barbara married James Bradford, a physicist, with whom she spent thirty loving years. They lived in the Washington, DC area, North Carolina, and Tucson, AZ, settling in Albuquerque in 2000. Barbara focused on the important task of raising her children and stepchildren, and in later years developed a career as an artist. She developed a unique medium employing the refractive quality of light to create color, and had a studio and gallery in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA. She invested in the next generation by sharing her multicultural experiences with members of her extended family, for example, by taking her grandsons on an African safari, her granddaughters on a trans-Canada trip and an English theatre tour, and hosting neices to six months in Paris and a year in Cairo. Barbara was a committed lifelong Democrat, a supporter of President Obama, and an activist in national and international politics. Following retirement she enjoyed taking long trips all over the world with her husband, visiting the Taj Majal on her last trip. Barbara will be remembered for building lasting relationships everywhere she lived, and the significant way she touched the lives of those who loved her. Barbara is survived by her daughters Marilyn Ruth McDonald and her husband Michael Edwards, and Laura McDonald Schneider and her husband Bernard; daughter-in-law Katherine Bailey McDonald; stepchildren Jamie Bradford and his wife Leslie, John Bradford and his wife, Elizabeth Gray; grandchildren Ruth Wikler Luker and her husband Morgan, Benjamin McDonald Wikler and his wife Beth, Sean Martin McDonald, Elizabeth Bailey McDonald, Jessica and Shannon Bradford, and Rowan Gray Bradford; great-grandson Julian Albert Luker; brother Charles Stewart and his wife Edalee, sister-in-law Ethel DeMaio and her husband Vince, and many extended members of the Stewart, Binfield, and DuBois families. Barbara was preceded in death by her husband James Bradford, who passed away November 18, 2007, children James Stewart McDonald and Kathleen Ethel McDonald, and siblings James Stewart and Margaret Stewart Binfield. A Memorial Service will be held at La Vida Llena, 10501 Lagrima de Oro NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111 on Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 1:00 p.m.. Barbara will be laid to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery in Urbana, Illinois at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to The Heifer International Foundation, www.heifer.org
        Published on: Fri March 27, 2009