BARBARA KATHRYN ENDRES (COOK)

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BARBARA KATHRYN ENDRES (nee COOK) October 26, 1922 - November 16, 2010 Peacefully after a brief illness Barbara died, at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg at the age of 88 years. Left to mourn Barbara's memory is her sister Eleanor of Fergus, ON; niece Andrea (Simon) and their daughter Madeleine, of London, UK; nephew Tony (Alison) and their children Jordan and Francesca of Calgary; niece Laura of London, ON. Born in Peterborough, ON Barbara grew up in the Beaches area of Toronto. She attended Branksome Hall and the Ontario College of Art. While there she received many awards. Among her instructors were Franklin Carmichael, Rowley Murphy and George Pepper. Barbara's father was with the Dominion Bank, and the family moved to Winnipeg with his job, in 1946. Between stints at Brigden's and Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg, doing commercial art work, Barb met her husband Leon H. Endres and they married in 1961. She continued painting in oil, watercolour, doing theatre set designs and large murals for jobs in churches, hospitals and schools. St. Ignatius Catholic Church was one example. In 1951, Barb was asked by Charles Comfort to help him with a mural for a banking hall in Vancouver. While still in Vancouver, after the mural was finished, she studied at the Vancouver School of Art under Jack Shadbolt and Orville Fisher. In that period she was in art gallery shows in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. After Leon's death in 1984, Barb continued her work with the theatre groups and the MSA. She sang in the choir at St. Stephen's Broadway United Church. Since the 1990s she and her sister Eleanor each sold many drawings to the Globe and Mail for their Landscapes feature, drawings in black and white of locations of interest to Canadians. On Saturday, November 27, 2010, Barbara's Funeral Service will be held at 2:00 p.m. in Broadway Disciples United Church, 396 Broadway. A special thank you goes to Maida Fisher and to the caring staff at Grace Hospital.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Nov 20, 2010