Barbara Shepherd

Barbara Shepherd is spicy. The present tense is required because once spicy, always spicy.  Having raised five children on her own, Barbara’s spice was well-earned and generously shared.  Barbara was well known for not holding back her opinion and she had a knack for telling it like it is.  She never just told you what she thought you wanted to hear.  She came from the school of hard knocks and many times she would pull out a famous Barbara-ism, telling you to suck it up in the way that only Barbara could.  Her spiciness will live on in our telling of her stories with each other and with future generations.

Barbara Shepherd, of Bedford, Virginia, was a lifelong football fan and dog lover.  One could say she loved the names Sheba and Barron too, as that was the name of almost all the family dogs.  Later in life, Barbara became as passionate about ceramic painting, as she did about gifting them.

Barbara always did things her way.  Her way was to leave us quickly and peacefully at the ripe old age of 86 years old, on Monday, February 13, 2017.  She is survived by, Barbara Wells and husband, Robert, George Leudemann and wife, Liz, Elaine Leudemann Witt, Robert Leudemann and his partener, Craig Zepeda, David Leudemann and wife, Elicia; grandchildren: Laura Cooper, Kristian Wells, Nicole Andrus and husband, Dan, Chris Leudemann, Callie and Jeffery Cesari, Justin Mitchell, Carter, Parker and Kye Leudemann, Samantha Stevens Mitchell; great grandchildren: Austin and Wyatt Cooper, Harley Bertram, Kali Wells, Skylar, Lana and Corbin Andrus, Emily Hall, Logan, Hunter and Andrew Mitchell and Chyna Hallauer.

… all whom loved her dearly and will never forget her tenacity, sense of humor and deep love and caring for them.

In lieu of flowers, Barbara would have wanted donations to be made to Bedford County Animal  Shelter, https://friendsofbedfordcountyanimalshelter,rescuegroups.ort/info/donate or Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center,  swvawildlifecenter.org.